Encourage your child to discuss ideas for building a tower out of newspaper that will support the weight of a golf ball. As an added challenge, discuss that the tower should be as tall as possible, but may not be taped to any surface as the base. Challenge your child to create a design from the supplies below.
Full Answer
What do you need to build the tallest tower?
Build the Tallest Tower that can hold a load, such as a golf ball or a marshmallow, depending on the materials. Work to build the tallest tower in teams — without talking! No tape can be used to secure the structure to a surface. 50 plastic straws, 50 pipe cleaners, and 25 paper clips
What to do with straws to make a tower?
Additional Tower Ideas. 1 Straw Towers. You can twist the end of one straw so that it will fit into the end of another straw. Here, we began by poking holes into a sheet of ... 2 Spaghetti. 3 Foam Blocks with Shaving Cream. 4 Foam Pool Noodles. 5 Craft Stick with Cups. More items
How to build a tower for kids?
Kids can sculpt a tower with a mixture of glue, water, and torn paper. You can also use things like DVD cases, sheets of packing foam, sponges to make amazing towers. Do you have additional ideas for how to build a tower?
Why build tallest tower activities?
Support Great Expectations! Building is fun — and a little competition makes it even more fun! Tallest Tower activities are being used to encourage teambuilding in schools and organizations. They are even being used to research human behavior! Check out this Ted Talk.
Step 1: Materials & Tools
To build your own golf ball catapult, you'll need quite a few materials that are very cheap and basic hand tools, and chances are you'll have some of them lying around the house.
Step 2: Arms
I wanted to have arms of different lengths because I made this for a science fair project. For the lengths, cut the 3/4'' PVC pipe to lengths of 24'', 28'', 32'', and 36''. Then, drill a 5/16'' hole all the way through each of the arms exactly 6'' from an end of the arm. This is where the fulcrum will be.
Step 3: Arm Supports
Cut the arm supports as shown. The only parts you need to cut are the arm supports. Cut off a bit of triangular excess, and the remnant is the base of the trebuchet - exactly 1'x2'. Drill a hole for the arm bolt as shown, with a 5/16'' bit. Once you've done that, you can test fit the arm and washers by layering them as shown.
Step 4: Attachment & Base
Attach the arm supports as shown with corner braces and screws. Make sure that the arm can still swing freely with no resistance. Then drill a 1/2'' deep hole 2'' from the back and 6'' from each side below the arm and glue in the dowel. Let it dry for 4 hours.
Step 5: Counterweight
This catapult is going to be fired with a counterweight, so grab the 5 pound brick. Lift it up to 3', center it over the arm, and...
Step 6: Siege
To start world domination with your catapult, always go through this checklist before firing:
How long does it take to build a tower?
You have 15 minutes to build your tower. After 10 minutes, you will be given extra marshmallows. There will be a 2-minute warning before the activity ends. Measure each tower to see which is the tallest!
Do you need a ruler to measure the tallest object?
Sometimes you don't need a ruler to know which object is tallest. You can use pretty much any object to measure any other object — crackers, crayons, LEGOS, shoes, anything! This way of measuring isn't precise but it's often close enough to count. It works really well for comparisons.
What can I use to make a tower?
Kids can sculpt a tower with a mixture of glue, water, and torn paper. You can also use things like DVD cases, sheets of packing foam, sponges to make amazing towers.
How to make a tower with toothpicks?
To create towers with toothpicks, you need to provide some type of material to hold the toothpicks together. The fun thing is that you can use LOTS of different materials. Here are lots of ideas: It’s fun to use marshmallows to build towers. Try gummy bears, gummy worms, gumdrops or other treats.
Can you use plastic bottle caps for sensory activities?
I love plastic bottle caps because they can be used in so many ways. In addition to using them as counters and for sensory activities, your kids can also use them to build towers. Use them alone or stack them up with wooden craft sticks.
Do you have to spend money on building tools for kids?
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on building tools for your kids. You can often find fantastic materials in your trash can or recycling bin. Here are some ideas.
Can kids make towers with cardboard tubes?
In addition to fun craft activities, your kids can also use them to make towers. Cardboard tubes may present some challenges as kids try to make a stable tower. Kids can add an index card in between each tube, or they can experiment with other methods. They can add holes and use pipe cleaners to hold them together.
Quick Look
Source Activity indicates the origin of this sprinkle. Most sprinkles in TE are based off of a 60-minute-or-less activity and usually have no prerequisites or identified aligned academic standards.
Procedure
Students design and build towers that use the provided supplies and can hold a weight 12 inches above the ground for 20 seconds. They may use any of the common tower designs shown in Figure 1 or their own designs, as long as the footprint, excluding any cable supports, fits within the notecard area.
