2022 Paper Ball Run Challenge for Grades 3-5

Background Information for Teachers

You might know them by different names: ball run, marble run, ball machine, or rolling ball sculpture. Whatever you call them, these devices start out with at least one ball at the top, and the ball works its way to the bottom as it rolls, bounces, and travels through various features and obstacles (Figure 1).

Image Credit Image Credit
Figure 1. Left: a small toy marble run, (Wikimedia Commons user Carl Steinbeißer). Right: a large rolling ball sculpture, Wikimedia Commons user Beyond My Ken. (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The 2022 Engineering Challenge is inspired by ball runs like those in Figure 1. As shown in the video, the goal is to build a ball run using only paper and tape, but there's a twist. Your students want to make the ball take as long as possible to make it through the ball run. Figure 2 shows some examples of the types of ball runs your students might build in this project.

Image Credit: Ben Finio, Science Buddies / Science Buddies Image Credit: Ben Finio, Science Buddies / Science Buddies
Image Credit: Ben Finio, Science Buddies / Science Buddies Image Credit: Ben Finio, Science Buddies / Science Buddies
Figure 2. Several different paper ball run designs.

You can use this project to explore several topics in physics and engineering with your students. Rather than explain each topic in detail, this Background section will give you a brief overview. The links in the Additional Background section provide some more information.

• Kinematics is the study of motion. How are quantities like distance, time, and velocity related? What do they have to do with the ball's path and how long it takes to travel through the ball run?
• The ball run uses different forms of energy. The ball has gravitational potential energy when it is placed at the top of the machine. Some of this energy is converted to kinetic energy (the energy of motion) as the ball gains speed. Some of this energy is lost to friction and converted to thermal energy (heat) as the ball moves. When the ball collides or bounces off something, some of the kinetic energy is converted to other forms, like acoustic energy (sound).
• The ball run might make use of different simple machines, like levers, inclined planes (ramps), or even a wheel and axle. How can your students incorporate different simple machines into the design of their ball runs? How can they slow the ball down?
• If a student makes a ball run taller, it can take longer for the ball to travel through it. However, building a taller ball run can be difficult. It needs to be sturdy so it does not fall over. For example, students might need to connect beams in triangular shapes to form trusses to support a tall ball run.
• You can use this project to practice the engineering design process with your students. They will need to design, build, and test their ball runs, and then change them or make improvements, and test again. This process is called iteration.

Additional Background Links

• 1-D Kinematics, The Physics Classroom.
• Work, Energy, and Power, The Physics Classroom.
• The Engineering Design Process, Science Buddies.

Prep Work (15 minutes)

• Gather all the construction materials in a central location for students.
• Print the Student Worksheets if you will be using them (one for each student).
• Optional: assign the Introductory Video for your students to watch before class.

Engage (5 minutes)

Introduce the challenge to your students. Explain that their main goal is to build a ball run that is as slow as possible (it takes the ball the longest time to go from the entrance to the exit), using nothing but paper and tape. Show your students the introductory video.

Then, go over the Student Worksheet, including the rules (also listed below).

Image Credit: Ben Finio, Science Buddies / Science Buddies
Figure 3. Diagram showing the entrance and exit of the ball run with required height above the ground.

Explore (1-2 hours)

1. Design. Before they start building anything, have your students draw two ideas for a ball run. Remind them to think about the materials they are allowed to use (paper and tape), and how they can use those materials to build.
2. Compare. After each student has drawn two designs, have them compare their own two designs against each other and think about which design would work better for the challenge.
3. Share. Have students share their designs with other students in their group. Each group should select a single design to build. Designs can include a combination of ideas from multiple students.
4. Build. After agreeing on a single design to build, students should start building it. They may need to make changes or adjustments as they build. This is OK.
5. Test. Students might want to test their ball run in stages before the entire thing is complete. That is OK. They do not need to wait until it is done before they start testing. For example, they might want to test different features of their ball run one at a time, then test the whole thing at the end. Students should make observations about what works (or does not work) while testing.
6. Improve. Based on their observations, students should make improvements to their ball runs. This could include, for example, adding more sections to the ball run to increase the distance the ball has to travel, adding features to existing parts of the ball run to slow it down, or making repairs to parts of the ball run that did not work as intended.
7. Re-test. After making improvements, students should re-test their ball runs. Emphasize that it is OK if their ball runs did not work on the first (or second, or third...) try! This is why engineers test things, so they can fix them and make improvements. Allow your students to continue improving and re-testing their ball runs as time allows.

Optional: note that students can also improve their scores by using less paper. For advanced students, you can encourage them to try to "slim down" their designs by removing extra or unnecessary pieces of paper, or by using paper more frugally (for example, cut a piece of paper in half first, then use it to make two separate beams or supports).

Reflect (20 minutes)

Once all groups have finished building their ball runs, have a class-wide competition to calculate official scores.

1. Make sure each group has counted the number of sheets of paper used in their final ball run design. Sheets used in earlier prototypes do not count. Record this value in the student worksheet.
2. One at a time, while the whole class watches, place a ping pong ball in the entrance of the ball run and start the stopwatch.
3. Watch carefully and stop the stopwatch as soon as the ball exits the ball run. Record this time in the student worksheet. Note that a stopwatch will record the time in minutes and seconds. To calculate scores, you will need to convert the times to seconds.
4. Each group can calculate their score using the equation in the student worksheet.

Discuss the results of the competition as a class.

• Did any students draw ball run designs that looked the same?
• Did anyone draw a design that no one else thought of?
• What problems did groups encounter during the building/testing process?
• Did the best designs have anything in common?

Assess

• Collect your students' worksheets and use them to assess how they worked through the design process.
• Ask each group to tell the rest of the class about their design. Why did they choose their design? Did they have any problems when building it?

Make Career Connections

Discussing or reading about these careers can help students make important connections between the in-class lesson and STEM job opportunities in the real world.

Civil Engineers

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Career Profile

Civil engineers design, construct, and maintain structures like roads, dams, bridges, airports, and the supports inside of buildings. In this challenge, you acted like a civil engineer when making sure that your ball run could stand upright and stable. Read more

Engineering Manager

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Career Profile

Designing and constructing buildings requires deep collaboration between many engineers and technical workers. Engineering managers, work to ensure that team members from all disciplines communicate effectively and that the project is moving along at a good pace. Engineering managers also step up to lead the problem-solving process when unexpected hurdles or setbacks are encountered. If you worked in a team on this ball run challenge, did anyone on your team fill the role of an engineering manager? Read more

Lesson Plan Variations

Did your students enjoy this type of hands-on project? Check out the other Engineering Challenges and try them in your classroom!