Activity: Paper Tower Design and Construction

Materials Required: Paper and tape

Goal: to practice the design process, including planning, predicting performance, and
teamwork to achieve the same goal.

Description: Build a paper tower. The performance is weighted based on the number of
sheets of paper they use, the height of the tower, and the time it takes to construct. However, before
students are allowed to begin construction, they must plan what they are going to do and estimate their
performance. After a predefined amount of time, all construction must stop. A typical performance
weighting might be

Performance Score = 10H - 67N - Z( T – 300 )

where H is the height of the tower in inches,

N is the number of sheets of paper used,

T is the construction time in seconds, and

Z is a weighting factor.

Z = 0 if the construction time is less than 5 minutes,

Z = 3 if the construction time is between 3 and 10 minutes, and

Z = 15 if the construction time is greater than 10 minutes.

The exercise is enthusiastically received by students and it gives a good chance to reflect on
what can go wrong.

Acknowledgement: Stephen Batill, University of Notre Dame