Waterless ActivityGroups of 2-4
Materials: 1 sheet of copy paper per group & no other tools
Student Directions: Using only the sheet of paper create a structure to support a textbook/dictionary 1 inch above the surface for at least 5 seconds.
If multiple groups accomplish this goal - whose structure will support the most books? Teacher Notes:
no tape no scissors or glue. Students can manipulate their paper in any manner they choose.
Activity credit to Pinterest. Successfully executed with 6th graders.
Here is my compilation of different mini challenges that can fit into this lesson as well. If you want other ideas, search āBrown Bag Engineeringā or āDollar store Engineeringā
Water would be difficult in my classroom so I really like this activity. I revised the Activity sheet to go along with the paper structures and attached for anyone to use if you click on the following link.Paper Structures activity guide
Howdy all - sorry for my delayed responseā¦ email filters caught everything.
Here are some links to help you visualize the paper tower strength STEM activity.
Many of these let students use tape or scissors or such.
When I did this in my class of 6th graders it was intended as a teambuilding activitiy during our 25 minute home room time so I didnāt want to pull out a large amount of supplies.
The strongest structures were cylinders just as you see in these links however my students didnāt tape them closed but rather created paper spirals that curled because of wrapping around their fingers or a table leg and they held their shape.
I had my students create a tower with a suspended 3 oz. cup that needed to be at least 3 inches above the bottom of the tower. We tested the towerās strength with pennies. I modified the worksheets from the boat activity to fit the tower activity. My students were given 20 non-bendable straws, 36" of masking tape, 36" of string, and a 3 oz. cup with holes punched in opposite sides. They could use scissors and rulers. No supplies were replenished. They loved the activity, although a few said they had done something like this previously.
Like others mentioned, I did debate working through the Problem Design Process first, however I used it as a discussion to walk my students through each step and we identified each part of the building tower lesson.
Paper Structure Challenge: I revised this lesson to a have kids build a Paper Structure to hold textbooks as high as possible off the desk. This was a good non-water alternative and I revised the student worksheet that worked well. I had a stack of textbooks in my classroom but when I do this again I will remember that I need many more! The kids were amazing in their building efforts and you need lots of textbooks for multiple groups to test their structures at the same timeā¦!
I teach a course for seventh and eighth graders who rotate through new courses each grading term. Since I had already done the aluminum boats activity with my first term group and some of them had already done a similar activity with a previous teacher in a past class, I wanted to try something different with my other classes for the next rotation. I still wanted the students to build something, so in the replacement activity, it was a waterless challenge with the goal of building a structure at least 2.5" tall, made of gum drops and toothpicks, and that could hold a textbook for at least 10 seconds. Students were given no more than 20 gum drops and 50 toothpicks. The students were really creative in their designs, and one teamās first attempt held the book for at least 32 seconds before collapsing. They had never done the project before and they loved the challenge.
These are great! I have used paper airplanes in the past with great success, having them all throw from one side of the room, and then walk to their paper airplane and explain the process and the student can see how far it went and then multiple iterations of the same and they soon find successful planesā¦ then I intro them to this website.
They would just get paper and go for it. Most had seen a paper airplane before so they would bring in that prior knowledge, but I wanted them to be hands on right away.
