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active challenge:

balancing act

Suggested Ages: K – 5th Grades

Steady your hand and stack up your stuff to build the tallest tower that you can! Don’t stop if it starts to get wobbly—BE COURAGEOUS and keep going until your tower topples over, then build it up again but bigger than before!

Active Challenge: Fun, movement-oriented games and activities to spark innovation and creativity

This is no ordinary DIY activity for kids: It’s a step toward becoming an innovator.

 

Every Galileo Active Challenge gets kids moving and teaches the same mindsets that professional designers, engineers, artists and athletes use in their work. With skills like these, we believe you can change the world.

Get Involved—For Grown Ups

Materials list:

Help your child find these materials or a close substitute: 

 

  • Many non-breakable objects of different shapes and sizes such as plastic containers, cardboard tubes, books, cracker boxes, durable produce (oranges, potatoes), plastic cups, etc.

 

Activity GUIDE:

Refer to these steps to keep young innovators on track as they play:

 

1.  Stack objects into a tall tower until it falls over.

  • Support being courageous—If kids are reluctant to keep stacking as the tower gets wobbly, emphasize that pushing the tower past its limit is part of the fun and a great way to learn how to build it even higher next time.

 

2.  Rebuild the tower with at least one additional object—Ask: What part of your tower was the most stable? How can you make it more stable next time?

 

More Ideas:

Every project presents opportunities to add your own twists or extensions. Here are some ideas to get you started: 

 

  • Try balancing a tall tower on your hand!
  • Try balancing a few objects on your head and walking around your house.

 

Wrap Up Questions:

Lock in the learning by asking kids these questions about their activity and how they practiced the featured Innovator’s Mindset element: 

 

  • When did you have to be courageous during this activity? How did that help you build the tallest tower possible?
  • What did you discover each time your tower fell? What did you redesign to make your tower taller each time?

SHARE!

The last step in the Gallieo Innovator’s Process is SHARE. Great learning can come from sharing successes and failures—to solidify your own experience as an innovator and to inspire others.

 

SHARE WITH galileo

 

Take a photo of your tallest tower or a slow-mo video of an epic collapse and share it with the Camp Galileo Anywhere Facebook Community.

 

Share with family and friends

 

Your innovation doesn’t stop with you. Inspire someone else by sharing your project challenge—maybe they’ll try it themselves or maybe your project will give them a new idea.

 

  • Who: someone in your house, a family member, a friend
  • How: in person, on the phone, online
  • When: anytime, starting now!