Materials List: Straw Towers to the Moon

Each group needs:

  • 50 non-bendable plastic drinking straws; note: students use various quantities of straws for the first two mini-activities and the culminating activity, never to exceed 50 total straws per group; have students re-use their straws for the various parts of the activity
  • 2.05 m masking tape, measured and cut into three lengths: 1 m, 0.5 m and 5 cm, plus an additional 0.5 meter of tape for the final redesign effort
  • scissors (for grades K-2 worksheet only)
  • tape or glue/paste, to adhere cut paper onto worksheets (for grades K-2 worksheet only)
  • Tower Masters Research Worksheet (Gr3-5), Straw Tower Mini-Activities 1 & 2 Worksheet (Gr3-5) and Tower to the Moon Main Activity Worksheet (Gr3-5), one each per student; for younger students, use the grades K-2 versions of these three worksheets, provided in the Attachment section
  • Competition Rules, one per group

To share with the entire class:

https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/ucd_straw_tower_activity1