Engineer It! at home

Make a Maze

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Can you design a maze for a marble?

Suggested Materials:

  • A shallow box or tray (to use as a base)
  • Straws, twigs, or strips of cardboard
  • Scissors
  • Tape or glue
  • Marble(s)

The Challenge: Can you design a maze for a marble?

STEM Concepts: Your marble doesn’t move on it’s own – gravity & the force you apply when you move the maze help it get going! Investigate Newton’s Laws of Motion, and see if you can find evidence of all three in your marble maze.

Extensions: Can you find other materials to add ramps or tunnels to your maze? Try sharing your maze with someone, and see if they can move the marble through it!

THE ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESSDefine the Challenge: Design a maze for a marble. The marble must have an entrance (or start), and exit (or finish). There should also be lots of obstacles! For an extra challenge, add some tricky dead end paths.

Plan Your Design: How will you create a challenging maze? How will the marble move through your maze?

Create a Prototype: Build a version of your maze. Follow the path that you predict the marble will take.

Test Your Creation: Does your marble go where you predicted, or expected?

Improve Your Design: What other obstacles can you add?