Sixth grade design Roman mazes

Our Lady of the Lakes sixth grade students have been learning about ancient civilizations. This past week, they focused on the Roman Republic. They discovered Romans started building roads around 500 BC and created a large network of roads that had stone pillars marking miles, a predecessor of our modern road signs.  


 

After learning about Roman roads, they participated in a STEM challenge to build marble road mazes. Their designs had to contain at least 6 tunnels and one bridge. One group of students said, “I think it will be hard but if we work together it will be good.”

The teams constructed their shoe box mazes out of construction paper, popsicle sticks, glue, scissors, and toothpicks. They could use as little or as much, but the groups had to provide their own materials.

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“It challenged our knowledge of Rome and our creativity,” said Anna Wisely, who enjoyed the activity. Mackenzie Lowry agreed “It used many skills and creativity to finish. We used teamwork, put our ideas together and had creativity.”

The consensus of the class is that they wished they had just a little bit more time for the activity. But Carter Wright disagreed, “I would not change anything because it adds a challenge to, well, the challenge!”