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Sydney Beltran and Brody Brand shoe their cardboard creations at the Maker Museum. (Photos by JOYANNA LOVE/ ADVERTISER)

Jasmine Nash created this Ferris wheel out of cardboard and wooden dowels.

Jenna Baker watches a marble make its way down her cardboard and popsicle stick creation.

Carson Stone, Zaden Jones and Elizabeth Cleckler stand by the games they created waiting for players.

Breanna Perault sits inside her cardboard train.

Landen Crumpton displays his popcorn dispenser.

Jennifer Ezequivel, Jordan Yates and Alaina Cantley show off their work.

Dennis Mitchell sits in his car made from cardboard and recycled parts.

Catherine Stone, Ryleigh Peirce and Lexus Thomas display their projects.

By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

It was part carnival, part museum as Clanton Intermediate students in Lisa Brown’s fourth-grade class presented their finished projects in the Maker Museum on May 17.

Brown assigned students to build something interactive out of cardboard, recycled materials and things they had around the house.

“They had to use a lot of science and engineering type skills, problem solving and measuring,” Brown said.

Brown said she was inspired by Caine’s Arcade, an all cardboard arcade created by a nine-year-old which was a part of launching the Maker Movement in the U.S.

Many of the projects kept with a carnival theme.

Student Jasmine Nash used cardboard, straws and small wooden dowels to construct a Ferris Wheel.

“I like riding Ferris wheels, so I tried to build a Ferris wheel,” Nash said.

An adult helped her hot glue the pieces together. Nash said the most difficult part was making the seats.

Jenna Baker designed a marble run.

“It shows how things move from one place to another,” Baker said.

Baker’s mom had seen a similar project on Pinterest and the family used the design as a guide.

She said the project took “about a week or so” to complete. Baker said she enjoyed completing the project with her parents.

Elizabeth Cleckler constructed a skee ball game using cardboard, Styrofoam cups, tape and lights. She decorated her yellow skee balls with emojis.

“I was inspired because I like skee ball and I thought it was a good idea to do it,” Cleckler said.

The project took about two weeks to complete. Cleckler said she enjoyed the chance to be creative.

Zaden Jones chose ring toss for her project. She built the game with cardboard and cardboard tubes in just a few days. The rings were cut from plastic lids

Jennifer Ezequivel created a SpongeBob SquarePants-themed ball toss, inspired by a similar project on the Internet. The project took about four days to complete.

For those with a sweet tooth, Brody Brand created a M&Ms dispenser. Brand said he made a funnel inside the dispenser for the M&Ms to fall through.

Brand said he enjoyed doing the math for the angles and symmetry needed for the project.

Several of the students had to overcome obstacles to completing their design.

Two students chose to create vehicles.

Student Breanna Perault constructed a replica of a diesel locomotive, so she would not have to make a smokestack.

“It would be harder to make the circle shape with the cardboard,” Perault said.

Perault created a logo for the train as well, combining a dog bone in a circle with her initials.

Another student built a vehicle using cardboard and bicycle parts.

Landen Crumpton said someone else was already doing his original idea, so he went to Brown for help finding another idea. She suggested a popcorn dispenser designed like a popcorn maker.

“There is a funnel in here that we created …and you push the funnel up and the popcorn comes out,” Crumpton said. “Unfortunately, it gets stuck sometimes.”

He said he enjoyed the creativity of creating the popcorn dispenser from cardboard and plastic wrap.

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