Engineering with Paper encourages
When students engage with hands-on activities there is so much to be gained!
Engineering with Paper is designed to help teachers & students learn and grow through hands-on active learning.
Holistic Development Through Hands-on Learning
Social-emotional
Problem Solving
Motor Skills
& more
Creativity
Engineering with Paper focuses on simple supplies - just paper, tape & scissors, which actually expands creative potential!
Simple supplies help our creative brains focus on the project rather than get distracted by choosing supplies or deciding where to start. Plus paper is affordable, available, and incredibly versatile!
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Simple supplies.
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Here are some ways Engineering with Paper impacts social-emotional skills, creativity, problem solving and more:
Spatial tasks teach social-emotional skills.
Engineering with Paper is spatial reasoning! Engaging with spatial tasks improves student's perspective taking skills, in both physical perspective taking as well as emotional perspective-taking.
Taking another's perspective, aka empathy, is a skill developed throughout childhood. Children learn this skill in a range of ways, including through hands-on activities. The physical experience of engaging with spatial tasks can also help students to improve their social-emotional perspective taking abilities.
In other words, hands-on projects can directly support social-emotional growth through experience with spatial tasks.
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​ Active learning encourages experiences that support growth beyond the lesson content, of many important skills from social-emotional skills, to creativity, to problem solving & critical thinking.
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Easy to get started.​​
Start with a shapeDesigned as a methodology that can adapt and become challenging in ways that meet the specific group. Experience with the materials and practice making the basic shapes as a foundation for more complex problems can help curb frustration. Positive associations with problem-solving and fixing projects can help students ​In our exposure-targeted model, negative PE in response to nonreward or threat generates frustration. Amsel (1958) conceptualized frustration as a normative response to blocked goal attainment that is associated with increased motor activity and aggression as the animal tries to obtain the reward
Value of open-ended projects that provide support with room to explore
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A classroom that encourages student exploration in a supportive and productive setting, is one that celebrates what creativity researcher Ron Beghetto can coined mini-C creativity. Unlike it's cousin Big-C creativity, mini-C creativity does not win anyone an Oscar or make their work the subject of decades of study. Mini-c creativity is what we educators experience everyday in the classroom. It's those small moments where a students tries a
Projects that encourage imagination
A classroom that encourages student exploration in a supportive and productive setting, is one that celebrates what creativity researcher Ron Beghetto can coined mini-C creativity. Unlike it's cousin Big-C creativity, mini-C creativity does not win anyone an Oscar or make their work the subject of decades of study. Mini-c creativity is what we educators experience everyday in the classroom. It's those small moments where a students tries a
Encourage productive peer interactions
Project-based learning, active learning, experiential learning, hands-on learning all encourage productive communication. Whether students are working individually or in a group, this approach helps facilitate socialization. From chatting while decorating a project, to describing their vision to an instructor, to presenting a finished project to the class, to communicating with group members about how to solve an issue, there is an inherent degree of social skill building that occurs. This experience can encourage growth in understanding social cues, resolving conflicts, engaging in coorperative behavior and social problem solving.