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Activity

Marble Maze Challenge

Design a marble maze on a cardboard base using straws, popsicle sticks, and tape. Then send a marble through it.

Ages
7–13
Duration
60 minutes

What kids build

A marble maze on a cardboard base that they iterated on after watching the marble get stuck.

Materials we bring

How we run it

  1. 01 Sketch a path for the marble to follow on your cardboard base. Mark the start and finish and decide where obstacles will go.
  2. 02 Use straws, popsicle sticks, or cardboard strips to create walls along your maze path. Tape or glue them down securely.
  3. 03 Include ramps by angling a popsicle stick, tunnels by arching a straw, or mini obstacles to make it tricky. The marble should have to navigate around corners.
  4. 04 Paint or color your maze to give it a theme. Space galaxy, jungle adventure, candy land, or ocean deep all work. Make it yours.
  5. 05 Tilt the maze gently and guide the marble from start to finish. Does it make it all the way through?
  6. 06 If the marble gets stuck or moves too fast, adjust your design. Add or move walls, or change the tilt angle. Engineers always improve.

Kids draft a maze plan, build it with straws and tape, and test it with a marble. Most mazes fail in an interesting way the first time — that is where the learning starts.

Real-world connection

From mazes to city planning

Civil engineers design paths for cars, water, and people every day. A water park slide, a highway exit ramp, and a marble maze all solve the same problem. How do you move something from here to there without it getting stuck?

Go deeper

Extension ideas

Themed mazes

Kids pick a theme like space, jungle, candy land, or ocean deep, and decorate the maze to match. Theme is how an idea becomes a product.

Double marble

Can two marbles run the maze at once without colliding? What does that force you to change about the layout?

When we have run this

Scheduled and past visits

Past

  • DEC 4 2025

    Thursday, December 4

    Completed

    Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center

    Kids planned and built their own unique marble mazes, learned about motion, gravity, and engineering design, and improved their designs through testing. Each kid took home the maze they built.

Bring this to your space

Want the Marble Maze Challenge at your library or school?

Tell us your space, your age range, and rough timing. We will come to you. Materials are on us.

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