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Description

Explore the challenges of building things in space using mechanical or robot arms (or jenga towers with litter pickers!)

Resources

Litter Pickers (1 or 2 per team)
Jenga Blocks (~ 10 per team) or similar
Tables (1 per team) and Chair (1 or 2 per team)

Instructions

Before you begin
Discuss with children what challenges astronauts may have working in space, fixing broken satellites or and building colonies on other planets. Explore topics such as:
• No breathable atmospheres – so need suits and air-tight vehicles
• Suits may be thick and cumbersome but fixing things may still be fiddly
• May need to use robots to work with big or dangerous things

Activity
In small teams, cubs will work as a team competing against other teams to do various building tasks as if they were astronauts.

Each team will have a table for “construction” with their “building materials” (Jenga) and a chair placed a short distance away so they can’t reach the table by hand.

Cubs will take it in turns to pick up Jenga blocks with litter pickers and attempt to build stacks or towers using a litter picker for hands. Cubs may take turns placing one or two blocks before swapping person. If they fall down, they lose their turn and the next person must rebuild one or two blocks at a time.

The first team to complete the task wins. Challenges can be:
• First team to pick up blocks from a pile under the table or on the other side of the room and stack them on the table wins
• Stack all blocks within a post-it note sized space, or smaller (height doesn’t matter, balance and stability does)
• Build the tallest tower in 5 minutes. Stability counts as going too tall too soon may mean it collapses before the time runs out.
• Move the chair back so they must work with arm out stretched
• Work in pairs with one litter picker each to build faster, but they must coordinate efforts.
• Move blocks from A to B while blindfolded with a partner giving instructions
• For smaller groups, take turns playing a normal game of Jenga by using only a litter picker to remove the blocks from the tower and place them on top

Tags

• Build a tower
• construction
• Jenga
• Robot - Challenge Tasks
• Space Activity Badge

Badge Links

• Skills - Problem solving
• Space - Astronauts
• Teamwork - Team game