3D Design on a Budget

The beauty of sculpture is that you can use just about anything to create an interesting and evocative piece.  However, I feel like many kids see famous sculptures that are made out of more expensive materials, and not enough pieces that are just as beautiful and made from cheaper materials.  So whether I end up in a school with a small budget or not, I would like to teach a 3D lesson with my students using cheaper materials to show what can be done.  For example:

 You can make a fantastic ship out of toothpicks...

...or Hogwarts out of matchsticks.

I would show my students some examples like these to demonstrate what can be done with simple materials, and then introduce their project:  to create a sculpture out of popsicle sticks.  Each student would have to use at least 30 popsicle sticks to create a 3D sculpture.  They would have to come up with a plan, sketch it out, and have it approved before beginning construction.  If any changes need to be made to their plan, they would need to have those approved as well.  The students could create a sculpture using several different methods, such as:

A small, solid model of a structure or object,... 

...a large, open model of structure or object,...

...an overlapping basket,...

...or a non-representational piece of their own design.

 They could not, however, create something like this:

Words are not allowed in the sculptures, and the sculptures must be at least 4 inches high.

I would probably do this project with an Art II class or above, given that the students in these classes would be more serious about the work and less likely to needlessly waste the materials.