Tower Challenge

[design challenge to build the tallest tower]

Key
This activity provides students an opportunity to become more familiar
with the stages of the Design Cycle (define, develop, and optimize).

Engineers use “define, develop, and optimize” as a way of thinking as

they create the best possible designs. In the case of tall towers, defining
the problem involves understanding constraints (of materials, safety,
cost, and the needs of the people who will use the building). Develop-
ing solutions means working creatively within these constraints to
find innovative solutions. Optimizing means making adjustments and
modifications to create the best possible design.

In this activity, students will learn more about and then practice these
steps by watching two videos about the tallest towers in the world and
then designing and building the tallest tower possible.

Activity Parts

Tower Challenge | Intro

Students watch two videos about the tallest towers in the world, with a focus on the Burj Khalifa in
Dubai (currently the world’s tallest tower).

In groups of 2-3, students will compete to build the tallest tower out of the provided materials.
Students will be guided through using each step of the Design Cycle (define, develop, and optimize).
The teacher will measure the height of the towers, and record them on the front board for all stu-
dents to see.

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 Part A
Big Idea for Kids
When engineers build towers, they use the Design Cycle. They define the
problem (what does the tower need to be able to do), they develop possible
ideas and solutions, and then they optimize those solutions so the building is
as tall, sturdy, and safe as possible. In this activity, you will watch videos about
the tallest towers in the world and learn how engineers have been able to make
better and taller towers over time. Then, you will get a chance to engineer a
tower. How tall can you build a tower using the materials available to you?

Getting Ready
Time Estimate
50 minutes

Materials
Videos
Worksheet
Meter stick
Popsicle sticks (15 per group)
Pipe cleaners (15 per group)
Golf balls [Easy version: ping pong golf balls (available in most dollar stores), Challenge: real golf balls]

Preparation
Load videos so they are ready to play
Make enough copies of the worksheet for each student
Count out enough popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners for each group

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Activity Instructions
1 VIDEOS (20 min)

Watch the following videos: Open the

How High Can We Build? Window
(Vsauce, 10:00) youtube.com/
watch?v=GJ4Qp2xeRds

Window cleaning the world’s tallest

How does the Design
building (BBC, 4:00) youtube.com/
watch?v=wcRuXrduj6Q Cycle help engineers build
towers? What challenges
Ask students to share what they
do you think engineers
thought about the videos. Did they no-
faced when designing
tice anything cool? Weird? Ask stu-
dents to raise their hand if they would incredibly tall buildings?
go to the top of the Burj Khalifa, and if Could a building ever be
they would wash the windows. tall enough to reach outer
space?

2 INTRODUCE ACTIVITY (3 min)

Tower Challenge | Part A

Tell students:

Today we will also be working on designing really tall towers, and you’ll get to
build them using pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been mini-golfing. [Wait for hands] Great! Mini
golf is important to the story we’ll be working with today. When the Magnificent
Mini Golf Course was first built, they had many customers and business was great.
Over time, however, many tall buildings were constructed in the surrounding area
that blocked the view of the golf course. People had a hard time seeing and finding
the golf course, and fewer and fewer customers came to play golf. The owners did
some research and learned that building a tall tower would help people find the
course. The owners want to do this to get more customers!

You have been hired as an engineer to design a proposal for a tower. The
Magnificent Mini Golf Course wants the tallest tower possible. Each group will get
15 pipe cleaners and 15 popsicle sticks. Your tower must be freestanding (not at-
tached to the table in any way) and must support a golf ball. The golf ball must be
part of the structure, and can’t touch the table. If your golf ball is at the top of the
tower, you’ll get a bonus 1cm added to your final height. Any questions?

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3 Define (3 min)

While you distribute the worksheet to each student, ask them to come up with a team/
company name and write it on their paper.

Ask the students “On your worksheet you are going to define the problem. What is the
problem we are trying to solve?” Call on 1+ students until you come to a consensus on
the answer. It should be something along the lines of “The problem is that the mini golf
course needs more customers” or “The mini golf course needs to build a tower to attract
more customers.”

Note: Some students may point out that assuming they need to build a tower isn’t
getting to the real root of the problem. That is a great observation! However, for the
sake of simplicity in this activity, we will assume and trust the research done by the
company.

4 DEVELOP (5 min)

While students work on developing and sketching their ideas, you can pass out the mate-
rials (pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks) to each group.

5 OPTIMIZE (15 min)

Students will have 15 minutes to build their tower. We recommend projecting a count-
down timer on the board so students know how much time they have left. Make an an-
nouncement when there are 5 minutes left and 1 minute left.

Draw a two column chart on the board:

first column for company names, sec-
ond column for tower height (in centi-
meters). While students are building,
View from my
rotate around the room and measure the Window
heights of their towers and record them
on the board. Even if you measure be-
fore students are done, it allows them to
see which team is currently in the lead! How did your final tower
compare to your original
6 MEASURING! (2 min) idea? What was the most
Make any final measurements of towers challenging part of this
and record them on the board. Students process? How did you
should write the final height of their optimize (make changes to
tower on their worksheet. If you want, improve) your tower as you
you can award a prize to the winning
were building it?
team (we suggest stickers!).

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7 REFLECTION (5 min)

Students should sketch their final design and answer the three reflection
questions.

8 OPTIONAL EXTENSION

Students can study the design choices other teams made, and combine ideas to
make a new, even bigger, tower.

Tower Challenge | Part A

Copyright © 2017 Through My Window

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 1223868 and 1223460.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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 Name ____________________________

Company Name ____________________________

Tower Challenge
Goal: Design a tower that can support a golf ball using only pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks

DEFINE ​the problem

DEVELOP ​solutions
Sketch your wild ideas! Discuss with your team members.
 OPTIMIZE​ your solution

PROTOTYPE
Build a prototype (first model) of your design by using the materials provided

GET FEEDBACK
What worked? What didn’t work?

REDESIGN
Make modifications to your tower along the way to make it as tall as possible!

Reflection
Final Tower Height:​ ​__________
1) How did your final tower compare to your original
Sketch your final design idea?
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________

2) What was the most challenging part of this

process?

_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________

3) How did you optimize (make changes to improve)

your tower as you were building it?

_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________