SCH4U - Chemistry 12 (2024-25) - A

SCH4U-25A

**Build a Tower - Team Building Exercise 1-1

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Description

In this activity you will have the chance to perform a team building exercise as groups of students try to build the tallest tower possible using limited materials.

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Build a Tower - Team Building Exercise

Click here to download a copy of this activity or see below for instructions.

Building a Tower Activity – Teachers Guide

Teacher’s notes: this activity is meant as a team building exercise to be used on the first or second day with a class.  It encourages communication, critical thinking, problem solving and is a fun way for students to interact with each other while performing an enjoyable task.   To relate the activity to chemistry you can ask the students to reflect on how the strategies that worked and didn’t in building a tall tower may apply to large molecules or you can also make connections between building the tower with the formation of polymers.

Instructions: divide the class into groups of 2-4 depending on class size.  Post the instructions below for the whole class to see or handout the instructions to each group.

The discussion component is key for this assignment.  Students should map out or create a blueprint of their structure before building. You can also encourage students to take pictures of their structures and share them with other groups, friends, etc.

 

Build the Tallest Free Standing Tower

 

Materials (per group):

  • One piece of letter size paper
  • Pair of scissors,
  • 50 cm of tape.

 

Challenge:

In your assigned group build a free-standing tower that is as tall as possible using one piece of paper and the tape supplied.  The tower must be free standing and so it cannot be taped to the surface it rests upon.

 

How to proceed:   

In your group make a plan.  Discuss the best way to use the one piece of paper that you have.  Remember you only have one piece of paper so plan before you cut!!!

 

 

Following the exercise (or the following day you can lead a class discussion using the following prompts or have each group answer and share their answers with the class after.

Reflective Questions:

1. What were some of the critical elements in building the tower?

2. How did you make your choices to prove your structure would be the ‘best’?

3. What is one additional material that you could use that would increase the height of the tower in the most effective way possible?

4. Seeing as this is a chemistry course, how does the building of a tower relate to the “building” of large molecules?