ELEMENTARY MODPODS F A mod pod with an attached garden. Nancy Walkup or architects to design build-ings that are structurally strong, they must understand that the forms they use, such as cubes, cylinders, and rectangular prisms are well-constructed and made of sturdy materials. You probably don’t have the materials available to architects in your artroom, but your students can build surprisingly strong structures starting with stacked cubes made from high-quality construction paper. All kinds of paper engineering can be added to these structures as well. Starting with Simple Forms Share and discuss with your students examples of simple constructions made from cube forms, such as the stacked adobe homes at Taos Pueblo in New Mexico and Habitat 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Explain to students that they will each make Your students can build surprisingl strong structures starting with stacked cubes made from high-qualit construction paper. A fanciful birdhouse. a simple paper cube to embellish or enlarge any way they like. Suggest pos-sibilities such as towers, birdhouses, doghouses, or gingerbread houses. Constructing a Cube To make one cube, each student will need twelve pieces of 2 x 4" construc-tion paper. You can vary the scale and the materials you use for con-struction. Tag board works well for larger structures because it’s stronger than construction paper. You can use assorted colors or just one. You can precut the paper yourself with a paper cutter or provide rulers, pencils, and scissors, and show stu-dents how to cut their own. Students should fold all their cut papers in half to create a sharp fold. Next, tell students to put four pieces of paper together at the corners to create a square, with the standing side of the pieces on the outside. Explain that
School Arts Magazine December 2019: Page 38
