I learned about MakeDo Cardboard Construction Kits while at TLA Annual earlier this year. We bought several kits for our Teen MakerSpace and a fun new station was born.

A basic kit comes with a safety saw, a whole punch, several screws, and some hinges. Everything works great except for the safety saw. The safety saw is kind of useless, so we replaced it with box cutters.

TMS Assistant Desiree was the first to use the MakeDo kit, and she made an amazing Ferris Wheel that spins. The teens enjoyed brainstorming and problems solving with her as they tried to find a way to attach various pieces and make the wheel spin smoothly. It was a moment where we saw making happen in full effect and it was glorious. The Ferris Wheel is made using MakeDo, cardboard, straws, styrofoam cups, wire and a pencil.

TMS Assistant Morgan made the knight helmet that you see above modeled by one of our regular teens. It is made entirely out of MakeDo pieces and cardboard boxes. The plume is the label off of a box torn off. This is a great example of what you can make using nothing but cardboard and MakeDo.

There is no limit to what you can do with the MakeDo kit. We are also working on adding our LittleBits to make moving pieces and our LEDs to making light up pieces. And as a library, we have no shortage of cardboard boxes that can be used for material. In fact, this is a great Earth Day/Earth friendly station.

I will say that the pieces are designed to be re-usable, so you can dismantle a project and use the screws and fasteners to make new projects. But I think we’ll have a hard time taking these two amazing projects apart to make new ones. But we will, for the teens. Eventually.

I highly recommend the MakeDo kits for your makerspace.