Reaching The Key

Materials Needed
Activity
Career Connections
Assessment
Standards

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After drinking something that causes her to shrink, Alice realizes that she left the key to unlock the door to Wonderland on top of the table, which is now too tall for her to reach. In this activity, children help Alice to reach the key by building a freestanding structure using only thick paper, 10 paper clips, and a pair of scissors. As children problem solve using available materials, they will explore the laws of physics, including gravity, balance, and weight distribution.

Did You Know?

  • Gravity is the power that holds us to the Earth and pulls things to the ground when they are pushed off-balance?
  • Freestanding structure, is another word for "a building that doesn't lean up against anything else?"
  • The tallest skyscraper in the world is 1,483 feet tall -- the Patronas Towers are located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Materials: What You'll Need for Each Pair of Students

  • 1 piece of cardstock, 8.5" x 11"
  • 10 paper clips
  • scissors
  • a key (can be made from paper)
  • a few surfaces (i.e., tables, chairs, stools) of varying heights, approx. 1.5 ft - 3.5 feet tall

To Get Ready:

  1. Divide the paper clips into piles of 10
  2. Make a key from foam or cardstock if you do not have a real key
  3. Find a stool or table approximately 1.5 - 2 ft. tall and place the key on it.

To Start, Ask:

Can you make a single piece of paper stand by itself? What could you do to the piece of paper to help it stand?

Activity: Now Try It!

  • Working in pairs and only using the materials provided - paper, paper clips, and scissors - create a freestanding structure that will help tiny Alice reach the key on top of the table.
  • As you build, what are you noticing? What seems to help the structure to remain standing? What seems to be bringing it down when it falls?
  • What techniques seem to work well to create the structure?
  • If you create a structure as tall as the first table easily, can you reach another key on an even higher table?
  • Measure your structure.

Questions to Think about and Ask:

  • How is the building of this structure similar to the building of a real structure?
  • Do you notice any similar shapes in the various structures created by the class?
  • What surprised you as you were building?
  • What strategies seemed to work best for building the structure?

Career Connection:

Structural Engineers design and construct large buildings called skyscrapers. Wouldn't it be exciting to see a building you designed as a structural engineer towering above you in New York, Chicago, or San Francisco?

Assess What Happened: (Students reflect)

Invite students to think about different ways to solve Alice's dilemma of being too small to reach the table. What other solutions can they come up with?

Connect It to the Story!

After Alice follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole, she lands in a long, dark passageway with locked doors on all sides. After exploring for a while, she finds a bottle labeled "drink me." Alice does as it says and drinks the liquid inside. All of a sudden she begins to shrink and ends up as tiny as a mouse. While this size, she finds a door and through its window she sees the most beautiful garden she ever saw. The door is locked so how will she ever get out into the garden? Just then, she sees a key on a glass table, but it's too tall. Can you help Alice reach the key?

Connect It to Standards:

"The [science and technology] standard includes abilities of technological design; [students] identify a simple problem, propose a solution, implement proposed solutions, evaluate a product design, [and] communicate a problem, design, and solution." (NSES Standard)