OK - about the paper building process...
I've been involved with Destination Imagination
Every year kids form teams and work together towards solving "challenges" on their own. There is a Team Challenge where each kid on the team must sign a declaration of independence insuring that they came up with their own ideas in solving their challenge and had no outside contributions (especially from adults) - they go on to compete at regional, state and if lucky national levels.
Year before last, one of our teams had to create a moving device that carried a specific amount of weight around the length of an indoor basketball court - our team of 8-11 year olds created a hover craft that carried the judges around. They went far and above the challenge requirements...
Along the way they are given "instant challenges" to help them learn to work as a team, get skills and practice in thinking outside the box. An example, they're given 3 sheets of paper, 2 avery labels, 14 pieces of spaghetti and told to make the highest structure they can that will support a golf ball (one of hundreds of different instant challenges).
They learn very early on that there is NOTHING they can't build out of avery labels and paper.
Think outside the box - there are ways of tearing a piece of paper that makes it a strip large enough for a grown up to walk through. A triangle is the quickest, strongest way to add height and strength to a structure...lots of different techniques but overall, when someone asks you to do something like this, they are looking for how well you come up with something different. The first two ideas you come up with are generally the first two ideas everyone comes up with (I was an appraiser that taught kids mini challenges).
The one things kids LOVE is duct tape. It's a stocking stuffer every year at Christmas
If they make you do anything like that for the interview, never look at the objects they give you, look for ways of turning those objects into something totally different!
Good luck on the interview Randy
