In-class activity 1.

4: Tallest Tower

The Problem:
For this challenge you will be creating a tower made out of balloons and masking
tape. Your goal is to use the material provided to construct the “tallest and most
aesthetically pleasing free-standing” tower in the class. The group to construct the
tallest tower in 30 minutes wins. You will be provided a finite, specific amount of
paper and tape. No extra supplies will be available.

Your tower will be judged based on the following criteria:

● Height
● Aesthetic quality
● Strength-Freestanding

At the end of 30 minutes, each tower will be subjected to a stress test. To pass the
strength test, it must be standing at the end of this test.

Homework (Write this in Google Docs so it can be transferred as a blog entry on your
website at a later date.)

● Create a blog entry on your CommTech website that describes today’s

problem-solving activity.
● Describe your process in point form.
● What challenges did you encounter and how did you overcome them? At first
we couldn’t find an idea to make the balloons free stand but then we figured
out something and we did it.
● Did you build the tallest tower you could? Why or why not? Yes
● How long did you spend planning? 5 minutes
● Did you look at other people’s towers/processes?Yes
● If you did, how would that help you? It helps me to remember what I did
before for my little brother's birthday decoration.
● Now that the activity is over, if you had to do it again, what would you do
differently? I would try to make it taller.
● How does building the tower in this activity make sense in the context of
what we might learn in this class? We learn about how to solve problems
step by step.