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Project challenge:

cereal box automata

Suggested Ages: 3rd – 5th Grades

Turn your cereal box into an automata! Use paper, tape, and a paper clip to create flexible linkages and bring a cereal-eating monster, or other imaginative character, to life. To achieve smooth movements, you’ll need to BE REFLECTIVE by taking time to think about what is and isn’t working in your design and making adjustments until the automata matches your vision.

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: 

 

  • Cereal box
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Large paper clip
  • Pliers
  • Assorted paper
  • Sharp pencil
  • Glue stick
  • Drawing tools
  • Optional: Cereal

 

Activity GUIDE:

Refer to these steps to keep young innovators on track as they create:

 

1. Cut the cereal box in half lengthwise.

 

2. Create the crank from the paper clip—You may need to help kids with this step. (1:42)

 

3. Mount the crank.

 

4. Attach the connection linkage to the crank. (3:05)

 

5. Test to the linkage by turning the crank.

  • Support being reflective—If kids are having a hard time identifying issues, encourage them to slowly turn the cranks and ask these questions
  • Ask: What did you notice about the linkage and crank? What parts are not working smoothly?
  • Ask: What’s one way you could modify the linkage or crank to improve the way it moves?

 

6. Imagine a reason the cereal could be disappearing and what cereal-eating character or object you’ll need to make.

 

7. Create the character’s body or object’s base out of paper and attach it to the box with tape.

 

8. Create the animation linkage and attach it it to the connection linkage. (4:39)

 

9. Test the automata.

  • Support being reflective—If kids are having a hard time identifying issues, encourage them to slowly turn the cranks and ask these questions
  • Ask: What did you notice about the linkage and crank? 
  • Ask: What’s one thing you could change to affect how the animation linkage is moving?

 

10. Redesign the automata and test again.

 

More Ideas:

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

 

  • Use the other half of the cereal box to make a second automata.
  • Add a background to your cereal box to make it into a scene.

 

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 reflective help you figure out what to redesign? What did you notice wasn’t working? What were some ideas you came up with to fix it?
  • How do you feel about how your design is working now? Do you have ideas about other things you might add to it?

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

 

Share a photo or video of your creation 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!