Engineering activity
Tower of Power
Build the tallest tower you can using only newspaper and tape. How high can you go before it tips over?
Materials and setup
- newspaper
- tape
- ruler
- scissors
How this changes by age
Pre-K (ages 3–4)
Build the tallest tower you can using only newspaper and tape. How high can you go before it tips over?
Steps
- Roll sheets of newspaper into tubes and tape them closed.
- Start building upward — try stacking tubes, making triangles, or bundling them.
- Measure your tower with a ruler or by comparing it to yourself.
- When it falls, look at what happened. Was the base too small? Too wobbly?
- Try again with a bigger base. Can you beat your record?
- Tell a grown-up one thing that surprised you.
Learning objectives
- Explore how base size affects tower stability
- Practice measuring height
- Develop persistence through iterative building
Kindergarten (ages 5–6)
Build the tallest freestanding tower using only 20 pieces of spaghetti and 10 marshmallows. No tape allowed!
Steps
- Rules: only spaghetti and marshmallows. The tower must stand on its own for 10 seconds.
- Plan: will you build tall and thin, or wide and short? Draw your idea.
- Build your tower. Marshmallows are joints, spaghetti are beams.
- Measure the height when it stands for 10 seconds.
- If it falls, observe: did the spaghetti break? Did the marshmallows slide off?
- Try a different design. Did triangular shapes work better than squares?
- Tell a grown-up one thing that surprised you.
Learning objectives
- Work within strict material constraints
- Discover that triangular structures are more stable than rectangular ones
- Measure and compare tower heights across design iterations
Early elementary (ages 6–8)
Engineer the tallest tower using only one sheet of paper and 12 inches of tape. It must support a tennis ball on top for 10 seconds.
Steps
- Constraints: 1 sheet of paper, 12 inches of tape, must hold a tennis ball on top.
- Brainstorm strategies: folding, rolling into tubes, cutting strips, accordion folds.
- Sketch 2-3 different designs before picking one to build.
- Build and test. Does the tennis ball stay for 10 seconds?
- Measure height. Record what worked and what didn't.
- Try your second design. Which one was taller? Why do you think it worked better?
- In one sentence, tell a parent or sibling what surprised you today.
Learning objectives
- Maximize structural height under extreme material constraints
- Apply concepts of load distribution and column strength
- Compare and evaluate multiple design approaches systematically
Upper elementary (ages 8–10)
Design a tower to maximize the height-to-weight ratio while supporting a 500g load. Use only newspaper and tape. Calculate structural efficiency.
Steps
- Goal: build the tallest tower that supports 500g (a can of food) using newspaper and tape.
- Efficiency metric: tower height (cm) divided by tower weight (g). Higher is better.
- Research structural concepts: columns, cross-bracing, triangulation, wide base.
- Draw detailed plans with dimensions. Estimate the weight of materials you'll use.
- Build the tower. Weigh it, measure it, then test with the 500g load.
- Calculate efficiency. Compare with a classmate or family member's tower.
- Write up: what structural principles contributed most to your tower's success or failure?
- After your first attempt, write 2 sentences: What broke? Why? Then build version 2. After version 2, write 2 more sentences: What improved? What got worse? Real engineers expect to fail twice before succeeding.
- In one sentence, tell a parent or sibling what surprised you today.
Learning objectives
- Calculate and optimize structural efficiency ratios
- Apply multiple structural engineering principles in a single design
- Analyze the relationship between material weight, height, and load capacity
Safety and evidence note
Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.
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