Challenge

Your challenge is to build three towers as tall as possible.

Time: 6 minutes total

You will have 6 minutes to build your structures

The Challenge: You are to build 3 freestanding towers that are as tall as possible with the materials provided. Each tower can only be made out of two types of materials. If a material is used in one tower it can’t be used in another. Each tower must stand for 10 second before it can be measured.

Materials

• 10 straws
• 10 pieces of spaghetti noodles
• 10 rubber bands
• 20 toothpicks
• 4 sheets of paper
• 4 mailing labels
• 10 small marshmallows
• 4 Styrofoam cups
• 1-12-inch piece of yarn
• Not included in your towers:  scissors

Scoring:

• 1 point for each inch of height for each tower
• Up to 20 points for the creativity of your use of materials
• Up to 20 points for how well you worked together

Do Ahead

Collect the following materials:

• 10 straws
• 10 pieces of spaghetti noodles
• 10 rubber bands
• 20 toothpicks
• 4 sheets of paper
• 4 mailing labels
• 10 small marshmallows
• 4 Styrofoam cups
• 1-12-inch piece of yarn
• scissors

Debrief:

After the team has finished their challenge discuss the following:

• What kind of problems did you encounter when you made the towers?
• How could you have used your materials differently?
• Did you finish on time?
• What could you have done differently?

Follow Up:

• Using the same materials, repeat the challenge after the debriefed. This gives them the opportunity to apply any corrections discussed during the debrief time.
• Do the challenge again using different materials.