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Description

Making a giant marble type run with poles and plastic balls or tennis balls.
The activity promotes teamwork, science thinking (prediction of events), problem solving.

Resources

Tent or wooden poles (not too rough or knotty or the ball will bounce off). Alternatively use old guttering
Ball - Ball pit balls work well, but tennis ball would be good also. Maybe test different types.
Slope or something you can raise the poles up on. If you are not on a hill, then maybe use a ladder and chairs.
Something to connect your poles together, we used bits of stick, but you might want to try either toilet rolls or plastic tubing?

Instructions

Tell your Beavers that they have to build a MEGA marble run. Challenge them to get the ball the farthest.
Layout the poles and connect them so that they are just far enough apart for the ball to sit a little bit down into the run.
Be careful when having the balls run too fast they will bounce off the track.
Have a single test ball, see if the Beavers can predict what will happen, where will the ball fall off or will it make it to the end if the run.
Once you have it tested if need be have the Beavers make walls with their hands at the points that the ball seems to fly off. Split the Beavers into two teams and have one be the walls and the other be the Ball launchers. Then give each Beaver launcher two balls and get them to try the run.
At then end, clear down safely.

Tags

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Badge Links

• Creative - Construction
• Experiment - Experiment
• Teamwork - Challenge
• Teamwork - Team game