Paper Tower Challenge

Reasons Why I Hate the End of the School Year:

1.  Letting go of an exceptional class.

2.  Letting go of these kids, scholars, honest friends.

3.  Having to clean up the big, giant mess that is my classroom.

Reasons Why I Love the End of the School Year:

1.  Getting to take risks.

2.  Getting to have more and more fun with our learning.

3.  How incredibly mature/advanced the kids are - they are practically whispering third grade at me.

End of Year means lots of quirky challenges.  The one presented yesterday?  Become a structural engineer.  Create a building using nothing more than printer paper and tape.  10 pieces of paper and 12 half inches of tape.  Each paper will cost you, the budding engineer, a cool $1,000.  Each piece of tape runs for $500.

The design that can withhold the most weight (while being the most economical) will be deemed the winner.  

And we begin.

We work in partnerships or in solitude.  We work on top of desks.  We do whatever we can to top our teacher's design.

Yes.  I made my own paper tower.  I thought that victory was secure.

Noticing my competitive nature, the kids start collaborating.  Teddy and James decide to barter:  one piece of tape for two pieces of paper.  I had not even thought to use this advantage.  Brilliant minds over here.

I thought that my tower would be the strongest.  Then I started to look around the room.  Pure tenacity.

Let's end the saga here:  my structure collapsed.  Teddy's structure, on the other hand....

withstood math journals...

withstood a hefty atlas...

withstood an actual textbook....

... withstood a dictionary!

What I want them to take away from this:

That it's good to brainstorm
It's good to dream big
It's good to think outside of the box
That it's possible (and awesome) to beat their teacher in a challenge

I'm slightly humbled, but more than that so astounded by these minds.