Paper Engineering

Challenge your students to build something amazing with our paper engineering kit, which includes rolling sticks, super strong hole punches, tape and plenty of nuts and bolts. All you need to provide is A4 scrap paper and some inspiration…

Plenty of adult artists, engineers and architects have taken on similar challenges. Your class could look at the paper tower Shigeru Ban built for the London Design Festival (Ban has also built a paper bridge, houses and even a church!), the group of Lithuanian students who built a paper version of the Eiffel Tower or the paper bridge that Land Rover built to drive their SUV over in 2015.

Perfect for developing critical thinking skills, teamwork and resilience, paper engineering allows students to explore engineering concepts without worrying about wasting expensive materials if they get it ‘wrong’.

Lots of schools like to link this activity to their thematic learning, challenging students to work together to create towers, bridges or domes that can then be strength tested by adding weights or using a Newton meter (included) to pull down. We’ve also seen some great creative builds though, from usable football goals and thrones strong enough to sit on, to a yurt that the whole team could fit into!

Contact our schools team with any questions on [email protected]