Yesterday, while the Grade 6 students were off having fun at Secondary School for the day, the Grade Five students were given a challenge, to make the tallest free-standing tower possible using only:
- ten sheets of newspaper
- 10 icypole sticks
- 10 drinking straws
- half a stick of Blu-tak
- masking tape
When we had our 15 minutes left warning, the teachers decided to try the challenge for themselves. Miss K, Mrs B and Mrs C collected the allowed equipment and in less than 15 minutes had built a tower that stood 3 metres (10 feet) high! And it stood without help! Such champions, but some of the kids said it wasn’t fair because the teachers had bigger brains with more science in them. Hmmm. The last picture in the gallery below is the teachers’ tower – what do you think?
Of the students, one groups were wildly successful, with their tower standing 1.8m (6 feet) high. Some other towers had to be measured lying down, as they fell over – and of course, the aim was the highest, not longest tower! So 10cm high and 2 metres long doesn’t win. 
Tags: Science, technology
Entries (RSS)
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:50 am
Hi everyone. I like your towers. That looked like it was really fun. Have fun grade 5 and 6s. I am having a great time in high school …..
Xo..manesha..xo
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June 9th, 2009 at 2:24 am
Great idea! I will use this next year with my 5th grade class.
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January 14th, 2010 at 5:37 am
That project was quite interesting. I would love to try that with my future class. However I would also like to know how in the world did the three teachers figure out how to build there’s within that short time span and have it follow all the requirements?…Amazing! Even the kids did a great job. Wonderful way to get the students wheels to turning.
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January 14th, 2010 at 5:44 am
Great project idea…i have no clue what so ever as to how the three teachers constructed their tower so quickly and according to the guidelines..Amazing! Even the students did a great job. Great way to get students wheels to turning.
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