Building Brick Challenge: Build the Eiffel Tower

What You Need:

• Building bricks of any size and shape
   

What You Do: 

1. Ask your learner, “Can you build the Eiffel Tower?”
2. Encourage your child to make a plan. Ask, “How many bricks do you think you will need?” or “Do you want to look at a picture of the Eiffel Tower while you build?”
3. Give your child time to create their design. Ask your child if they need help, but they should be allowed to do most of the building.
4. Have designers play with their new design. Ask, "What might someone who is in front of the Eiffel Tower be thinking?"
5. After testing out the design, ask your learner what ways they can adjust their design. For example:
   • Do you want to make the size of the tower larger or smaller?
   • Do you want to look at the picture of the Eiffel Tower again and change your design?
6. Challenge designers to share their new designs. They can record a video or write an essay describing how they built their tower and how it compares to the Eiffel Tower. Ask some prompting questions, like:
   • What did you enjoy the most about this activity?
   • Did you find it challenging to recreate the Eiffel Tower?

Amplify this challenge! Choose one or more of the following questions to add a new level of difficulty to the challenge: 

• Can your tower withstand weather, like rain or wind?
• Can you replicate the latticework on the Eiffel Tower? This lattice ironwork makes the tower strong while staying lighter than a solid tower.