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) (PDF), Straw Tower Mini-Activities 1 & 2 Worksheet (Gr3-5) (PDF) and Tower to the Moon Main Activity Worksheet (Gr3-5) (PDF), one each per student; for younger students, use the grades K-2 versions of these three worksheets, provided in the Attachment section
• Competition Rules (PDF), one per group

To share with the entire class:

• visual aid of the Tallest 20 in 2020 poster, to show students comparative profile images of tall towers, available at http://s3.amazonaws.com/wbez-assets/curiouscity/CTBUH_Tallest20in2020_Poster.jpg; either make one large class poster or group handouts, or project the image in the classroom
• measurement tools, such as rulers, measuring tape, meter/yard sticks
• timer or clock