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Project challenge:

action figure

Suggested Ages: K – 2nd Grades

Pull some strings and make a figure that bends to your will. BE VISIONARY and imagine a custom character—like an Olympic ice skater or a diamond-digging Minecrafter—and then bring your vision to life with moving paper arms and legs and other decorative details.

Engaging Design-It-Yourself projects to inspire young innovators

This is no ordinary DIY project for kids: It’s a step toward becoming an innovator.

 

Every Galileo Design-It-Yourself Challenge teaches the same techniques and mindsets that professional designers an engineers, artists and chefs use in their work. With skills like these, we believe you can change the world.

Get Involved—For Grown Ups

Materials list:

Help your child find these materials or a close substitute: 

 

  • Stiff paper (index card, card stock, etc.)
  • Straws (you can use paper and tape to make your own)
  • Cord (string, yarn, etc.)
  • Tape
  • Scissors
  • Markers
  • Scrap cardboard packaging

 

Activity Steps:

Use these to keep your innovator on track as they create: 

 

    1. Be visionary by thinking of a specific character you want to create and an action that it’s doing.
    2. Cut the character’s body from cardboard.
    3. Cut an index card in half lengthwise and then fold it in half lengthwise. (Or cut and fold a similarly sized rectangle from stiff paper).
    4. Cut a 1″ piece of straw and tape it to the paper so the open end of the straw lines up with the short edge of the paper.
    5. Thread a piece of string through the straw, pull it through and tape it securely to the other end of the paper. You’ve made a limb.
    6. Tape the limb to the back side of the body. (Or see the video for different options for attaching the limbs.)
    7. Pull the string to test and make sure the limb is moving in a way that matches your action.
    8. Repeat to create more arms or legs or add non-moving arms or legs.
    9. Be visionary to bring your character to life. Draw a face, make props, and play!

 

Guiding Questions:

If your child is stuck, try asking these questions to help them keep on innovating: 

 

  • Who is your character and what are they doing?
  • Do your character’s limbs move in the way you’d imagined? If not, how can you attach the moving arms and legs so they move in a way that matches your vision?

 

More Ideas:

Every project presents opportunities to add your own twists or extensions. Here are some ideas to get you started: 

 

  • Bring character to life by adding details like hair, clothing, props, etc. that match your vision. What about interchangeable outfits!
  • Step it Up! Use the same building techniques to create other appendages, like alien antennae, twitching bunny ears, or octopus arms.
  • Innovate On! Make multiple characters who live in the same universe, such as a hero and a villain.

 

Wrap Up Questions:

Lock in the learning by asking your child these questions about their project and how they practiced the featured Innovator’s Mindset element: 

 

  • How did being visionary at the beginning of the process help you create your action figure?
  • Does your action figure match your vision? If not, what else might you do later to bring your vision to life?

SHARE!

Great learning can come from sharing successes and failures—to solidify your own experience as an innovator and to inspire others.

 

SHARE WITH galileo

 

Take a picture or video of your action figure in action and share it with the Camp Galileo Anywhere Facebook Community.

 

Share with family and friends

 

Your innovation doesn’t stop with you. Inspire someone else by sharing your project challenge—maybe they’ll try it themselves or maybe your project will give them a new idea.

 

  • Who: someone in your house, a family member, a friend
  • How: in person, on the phone, online
  • When: anytime, starting now!