STEM Activity | STEM Career Connection: Engineer, Mathematician (angles and shapes)
Standards: 2019 MN Science 3.2.2
Plan, build, and test a maze that challenges even the most skilled marble “football player”!
Materials
- Football Defender Cut outs
- Marble Maze Templates
- Marble Maze Templates With Defenders
- Masking tape and pencil/markers
- A marble
- Scissors
- Box or box lid, shoebox-size and larger
- Glue
- Easy to glue materials for maze walls: straws, cardstock, popsicle sticks, beads
Predict
Football players can only run where there is an opening. How could you create a maze for your marble “football player” to run through?
Plan
Think of materials you could use to block your “football player.”
Play
- Decide how many correct paths will lead to the end zone. Are you down if you hit a defender? Or do you just have to scramble and find a new path?
- Use the maze template, or draw maze walls in pencil on the inside of the box or box lid.
- Construct the maze walls out of the chosen materials. Attach your defender cut outs in the dead ends of the maze.
- Roll your marble through the maze. Is it easier or harder than you wanted it to be?
- Make improvements to your maze.
Ponder
- What challenges did you encounter while constructing your maze walls? How did you find a solution?
- How was your maze similar or different from a classmate’s maze?
- If you could make a second maze, what would you do differently?
Extension
- Engineer a larger maze, or make a vertical maze out of toilet paper and paper towel tubes and cardboard.
- SEL Connection: Explore labyrinths (mazes with only one correct path and no dead ends). Does navigating a labyrinth have a calming effect for you? How are your feelings different (or the same) when completing a maze with multiple solutions?
