Plan
- What supplies will you need for this activity?
- How much tape will each person be allowed to use to build their tower? How much paper?
- Will there be a time limit on your building challenge? How much time will you have to build your tower?
- How will you compare different towers?
- What do you know about strong shapes and building tall structures?
- How will you care for the environment in the disposal of unused papers and of your towers after the adventure is over?
Do
- Have each person start off with the same amount of paper and tape.
- Using the supplies you have, try to build the tallest tower possible. For an added challenge, try using only a single sheet of paper. Your tower should be able to withstand a gust of wind (blowing on it from 30cm away).
- Each tower should be free-standing and movable
- Measure your towers – whose tower is the tallest?
Review
- What do you know now that you did not know before?
- What shapes worked well for your tower?
- What other structures could you build using newspaper?
- What elements of STEM did you use in this adventure? Science? Technology? Engineering? Mathematics?
- What did you like about this adventure? What did you not like? How would you do this adventure differently?
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Remember to submit your activities on our Scouts for Sustainability Take Action Map
Materials
- Paper – newspaper works best, but printer paper is fine too
- Tape
- Scissors
- Measuring tape or ruler
Keep it Simple
- Watch the newspaper towers video before you start to get some ideas about how to make a paper tower that can stand up by itself. Then, start building.
Take it Further
- What else can you make out of paper? Try making bridges and see if they can hold the weight of a small toy car or learn how to fold a simple origami craft.
