From Cardboard to Construction: Building the Next Generation of Canadian Makers
What if one of the best materials for teaching engineering, design and skilled-trades thinking is already sitting in your recycling bin?
Across Canada, educators are looking for practical ways to move STEM learning beyond worksheets and screens and put materials and tools directly into students’ hands.
That’s exactly where the ChompSaw comes in.
Over the past year, Kidder has sold more than 1,000 ChompSaw units to schools, school boards, community centres and camps across Canada—and we’re excited to see cardboard construction becoming an accessible starting point for hands-on design and build learning.
Start With Cardboard
Cardboard might be one of the most underrated STEM materials available to educators.
It’s inexpensive, readily available, recyclable and forgiving. Students can make mistakes, redesign, rebuild and experiment without worrying about wasting expensive materials.
Pair cardboard with the ChompSaw from Kidder, and suddenly an ordinary shipping box becomes raw material for engineering.
Students can design and build:
- Architectural models and structures
- Bridges and towers
- Vehicles and prototypes
- Marble runs and simple machines
- Costumes and wearable designs
- Dioramas and geography models
- Games and interactive displays
- Art and sculpture
- Engineering challenge solutions
- Inventions entirely of their own design
The ChompSaw is specifically designed to make cardboard cutting accessible to young makers. The current Kidder package includes the ChompSaw, Hole Punch and Scoring Tool, along with access to ChompSaw's Learning Hub for project ideas and tutorials. Kidder lists it for ages 5+.
Why Educators Love Cardboard Construction
There’s an important difference between learning about engineering and actually being asked to engineer something.
Give students a piece of cardboard and a challenge—“Build a bridge that can support this weight”—and suddenly they need to measure, plan, cut, test, evaluate and redesign.
Failure becomes part of the lesson.
A wall isn't strong enough? Reinforce it.
A bridge bends? Change the structure.
Two pieces don't fit? Measure again.
That iterative process of plan → create → test → improve is at the heart of meaningful STEM and design learning.
Take ChompSaw Further With the Complete Maker Bundle
For classrooms, libraries and makerspaces looking for a more complete ChompSaw station, Kidder also offers the ChompSaw Maker Bundle.
The bundle includes the ChompSaw, Hole Punch, Scoring Tool, Attachable Fence, Circle Guide, Angle Guide and Inventor's Workbook, plus access to the Learning Hub. The accessories allow students to make straight cuts, circles, angled cuts, folds and holes while the workbook introduces design principles through hands-on challenges.
This turns a ChompSaw station into something much bigger than a cardboard cutter—it becomes a classroom prototyping centre.
One Platform. So Many Curriculum Connections.
One of our favourite things about design and build learning is that it doesn't need to live within a single subject.
A cardboard makerspace can support learning across the Canadian STEM curriculum and beyond.
Science & STEM
Explore structures, forces, stability, simple machines, energy, motion, mechanisms and material properties.
Mathematics
Put measurement, geometry, angles, scale, area, perimeter, estimation and spatial reasoning into a real-world context.
Technology & Skilled Trades
Introduce students to measuring, marking, safe tool use, construction processes, prototyping, accuracy and the importance of planning before building.
Engineering & Design Thinking
Identify a problem, develop ideas, create prototypes, test solutions and continuously improve a design.
Visual Arts
Explore form, sculpture, model making, three-dimensional design and creative construction.
Environmental Education
Turn discarded cardboard into a valuable construction material while opening conversations around reuse, recycling, sustainability and responsible material choices.
And because students are physically making something, many of these concepts naturally overlap within a single project.
A cardboard house, for example, can involve measurement, geometry, structural design, art, sustainability and construction—all at the same time.
What's Next? Graduate From Cardboard to Real Tools & Wood
Cardboard doesn't have to be the end point.
We see it as an excellent starting point.
Once students have learned to measure, plan, prototype, cut, assemble and improve their designs with cardboard, they're ready to take another step:
Give them real tools and real building material. Start with Cardboard, then move to popsicle sticks (see picture below) to build your prototypes.
The Kidder Basic Tool Kit was developed to give students the basic tools needed to begin authentic classroom construction projects.
The kit includes a pistol-grip hand drill, drill-bit set, bench hook, junior hacksaw, replacement blades, glue sticks, C-clamp, safety glasses and gloves. Kidder also provides teacher-developed tool-safety instructions with the kit.
Pair those tools with Kidder 10 × 10 mm Jinxwood/Basswood Strips and students have an incredibly versatile construction system.
Our 10 × 10 mm strips are easy for students to measure, cut and manipulate, yet substantial enough to create impressive projects. They're supplied in 61 cm lengths and packages of 100.
Students can build:
Bridges. Houses. Towers. Car frames. Turbines. Structural models. Machines. And just about any STEM contraption they can imagine. (see picture below)
This is where design-and-build learning can also become an early introduction to the skilled trades.
Students aren't simply assembling a predetermined kit. They're learning how to measure accurately, use tools safely, understand materials, solve construction problems and turn a drawing or idea into a physical object.
Those are valuable skills whether a student eventually becomes an engineer, carpenter, electrician, technologist, architect, designer—or simply grows into an adult who isn't afraid to pick up a tool and build something.
Cardboard → Prototype → Build
We believe there is a powerful progression available to Canadian schools:
Start with cardboard.
Make building inexpensive, accessible and unintimidating.
Introduce tools.
Teach students that tools can be used safely, responsibly and confidently.
Move into wood construction.
Take the principles learned through cardboard prototyping and apply them to stronger materials.
Keep increasing the challenge.
Add structures, mechanisms, wheels, gears, motors, electricity and other STEM concepts.
The goal isn't simply to produce a nice-looking project.
The goal is to develop students who look at a problem and think:
“I can build something to solve that.”
That's the mindset behind a great makerspace.
Ready to Get Your Students Building?
Whether you're setting up a single classroom maker station, outfitting a library or makerspace, planning a summer camp, or looking at design-and-build programming across an entire school board, Kidder can help you create a hands-on learning environment that can grow with your students.
Start with the ChompSaw with Hole Punch & Scoring Tool or create a more complete station with the ChompSaw Maker Bundle.
When your students are ready for the next step, introduce the Kidder Basic Tool Kit and 10 × 10 mm Jinxwood/Basswood and watch cardboard prototypes turn into real wooden structures.
Because sometimes the best way to teach STEM isn't to explain it. It's to give students the materials, the tools and the opportunity to build it.
Kidder Education
Canadian owned and operated. Helping Canadian educators bring STEM, skilled trades, makerspace and hands-on learning into the classroom.
