Cardboard Project for Students

In this guide we'll show you how you can make a project box that will house an Adafruit Circuit Playground Express, micro servo and 3xAAA battery pack. We'll use a paper template to create cardboard panels that snap fit together. Print the design on paper, stick it on cardboard and cut away!

Students will learn an assortment of skills by accomplishing this project. Cater this project to your curriculum and let your students customize the details to make it theirs!

Using cardboard as a material to make stuff allows for experimentation and rapid prototyping. It's easily to work with, dirt cheap and normally gets thrown out. So this stuff is great for teaching young students and kids how to build projects.

Companies like Nintendo and Google have shown how precisely cut pieces of cardboard can form intricate project enclosures that are sturdy enough to house components snugly and look neatly packaged.

Designing and creating your own templates is a fun exercise in engineering. Using low-cost materials and methods allows for wide spread adoption for open sourced projects because it's easy to make.

Fun PaperCraft! 

Get creative and turn this project into a playful creation with colorful paper cutouts. Papercraft is an art form that uses paper as a medium to create three dimensional objects. Here we made Blink The Python Snake move with the help of a micro-servo and Circuit Playground Express.

Electronic Parts

We'll be using the Adafruit Circuit Playground to control a micro servo and power our project using a 3x AAA battery pack. This is all we need to create simple movements. But thats not all! Circuit Playground Express has tons of sensors (like accelerometer, light, sound and temperature sensors) to experiment with, not to mention the radiant glow of 10x NeoPixels!

Tools & Supplies

Assortment of materials and hand tools to work with.  

  • Cardboard – 8.5x11 (2.6mm)
  • Office paper – 8.5x11 
  • Cutting Mat
  • Ruler / T-Square
  • Scissors
  • X-Acto Knife
  • 3x AAA Batteries

Prerequisite Guides

There's resources in these guides that go beyond what's covered in this tutorial. MakeCode guide is all about setting up your CPX board. The main CPX guide walks you through all of the pinouts, sensors and everything you need to know.

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For bread-boarding with unusual non-header-friendly surfaces, these cables will be your best friends! No longer will you have long strands of alligator clips that are grabbing little...
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Front angled shot of 3 x AAA battery holder with on-off switch and 2-pin JST PH connector.
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This guide was first published on May 30, 2018. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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