“Nice shoes,” said an onlooker, observing a student fastening a pair of homemade cardboard heels across another student’s ankles. The pair then strutted confidently over to join their eighth grade classmates and prepared to “walk the runway.”
The “runway” was actually a concrete breezeway near the school’s upper campus entrance , where Mount Madonna School (MMS) eighth grade students were
gathered to test the sturdiness and functionality of cardboard shoes they’d designed, engineered and constructed as part of their Technology, Engineering and Art (T.E.A.) class curriculum.
“The cardboard shoe project gives students experience designing from both engineering and artistic perspectives,” said teacher John Welch. “The students are asked to make shoes that are both functional and aesthetic, using only cardboard, glue, tape and string.
“They are a fun way to teach students about the design process, including: brainstorming, research, prototyping and working with materials,” he continued. “Working in pairs, the students create and present slide presentations of their design process. The students then show off their shoes at the end of the project, by walking a ‘runway’ with other students and teachers and staff looking on.”
Most of the shoes in this year’s collection held up to the 50-yard test walk. Designs included sandals sporting smiley unicorn heads, platform thongs trimmed with artistic waves, a three-shoe “pair” intended for two people to wear together, featuring a single shoe for each, along with a third, “double” shoe to be shared, sandal slides and a pair of two-inch heels with ankle straps.
