Newspaper Tower Building Challenge

The challenge was to build a self supporting tower made out of only two sheets of newspaper (we used a broadsheet newspaper).  First we had to make a prediction as to how high our tower would be and how long it would stand up by itself.   The next step was to create the tower.  This part of the process involved a lot of problem solving because often our original ideas didn't quite work out or we need to make adjustments so our tower would be higher or stand up for longer.  Lastly, we had to evaluate our tower creation and compare what actually was produced to our prediction.

What some of us found out is that we really like a challenge and being able to create something that requires a bit of thinking.  But some of us also gave up easily because we don't like activities that we can't get right first time.  We used our understanding understanding (we learn and grow by facing challenges with courage, persistence and resilience) and the essential questions ('What challenges me?' and 'How do I respond to these challenges?') to help us focus our reflection.  What we all felt at the end though, was finishing the challenge was a good feeling.

Here are some photos of this challenge activity.