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WMG Outreach - Paper Engineering

If you are looking for our Paper Engineering Christmas box, please go to the Paper Engineering Christmas box page instead.

Paper Engineering

Make a Pop-up Book.

Paper Engineering

Paper Engineering uses skills from every letter of STEM:

  • Science: directing the force we can apply into the paper to make our creations do work for us, and reducing forces that get in our way like friction.

  • Technology: using the principles of motion to design mechanisms to create parts that move in interesting ways, redirecting force that we put in to motion in the paper parts.

  • Engineering: manipulating our material, in this case paper, to construct the pop-ups. Making the components, cuts, creases and connections work perfectly together by having the right tolerance in our designs.

  • Maths: understanding geometry helps make our angle folds and parallel folds pop from the page perfectly.

Pop-up

Pop-up is the term used for dimensional and movable books or cards, using kinetic energy, this is created when you open the page of the book or card, pulling a tab or rotating a wheel. Using this knowledge and the skills outlined above the WMG Outreach team has created the following lesson plan, videos tutorials and resources to support its use by teachers, parents and students, suitable for upper key stage 2 (school years 5 and 6) and key stage 3 (school years 7, 8 and 9)

Warwick Racing Pop-up Book

This video shows the completed landscape Warwick Racing pop-up book, created using pull sliders, box folds, lift-up flaps and rotary motions.

All of these techniques can be found in the lesson plan and reources below

Warwick Submarine Pop-up Book

This video shows the completed portrait Warwick Submarine pop-up book, created using pull sliders, lift-up flaps, mouth fold, double box fold and rotary motions.

All of these techniques can be found in the lesson plan and reources below

Pop-up Book Lesson Plan

This outreach scheme of work introduces paper engineering and the process of iterative design. These lessons aim to give children the basic knowledge of paper engineering, creating foundation pop-ups and mechanisms to create their own pop-up book.

There are 6 to 8 lessons, with each one taking 1-2 hours each. (Aimed for a half term of lessons, if teaching an hour a week, you will likely need the full 8 weeks, if teaching 2 hours a week, you should be able to complete in 6 weeks).

Lesson plan - PDFLink opens in a new window

Lesson plan - word documentLink opens in a new window

How to videos

Here are all the 'how to videos' to support the lessons (quick links are in the lesson plan and by clicking the headers here)

These guide you in a step by step way to create all the v-fold pop-ups, box fold pop-ups, mechanisms and essential techniques to support creating a successful pop-up book.

How to create a V-Fold Pop-UpLink opens in a new window

How to create a Box Fold Pop-UpLink opens in a new window

Essential Techniques to Pop-UpLink opens in a new window

 

V-Fold Pop-Up Variation: MouthLink opens in a new window

 

V-Fold Pop-Up Variation: AngleLink opens in a new window

Box Fold Variation: Double BoxLink opens in a new window

Box Fold Variation: TentLink opens in a new window

 

Mechanisms: Pull SliderLink opens in a new window

 

Mechanisms: Rotary

Mechanisms: Lift-Up FlapsLink opens in a new window

Page content created by Caroline Cannon