🏛️ Paper column shapes: the whole packet

🏛️ Paper column shapes · 3rd–8th grade · 1 day of testing · free · 45 minutes a sitting

My days, if the fair is 14 days away

Count back from your fair day and write in each date. Fewer days than this? The jobs share days, in this order; nothing is skipped.

Dates from my teacher

• My question is due
• Testing starts
• My results table and graph are due
• My board is due

In this packet

1. 🗓️ My project plan
2. 💭 My hypothesis
3. 🧺 Change, measure, keep the same
4. 🪜 My steps
5. 📊 My results
6. 📓 My logbook
7. ✅ My conclusion
8. ✂️ Board titles to cut out
9. 🏅 The judge's questions and my certificate

If I change the shape of the paper column, then how many books it holds before it crumples will ________________, because _____________________________________________

What I think will happen, in my own words:

3 levels × 3 tries at each = 9 tries in all. If anything you keep the same changes, you won't know which change made the difference.

What I need

• 📄 Paper: about 10 sheets, all the same
• 📚 Some books: about 20, all about the same weight
• 📦 Flat cardboard: a flat piece big enough to cover the top
• 🩹 Tape
• 📏 A ruler

Be safe: 🚧 Stand back when it goes

1. Fold one sheet in 3 equal parts along its long edge, and tape the ends together: a triangle column.
2. Fold a second sheet in 4 equal parts the same way, and tape the ends: a square column.
3. Roll a third sheet into a tube the same way, and tape the join: a round column.
4. Stand the round column on a table and lay the flat cardboard on top.
5. Add books one at a time, in the middle. Stand back when the column goes.
6. Count the books it held before it crumpled, and write the number in your table.
7. Make a new round column from a fresh sheet and test it two more times.
8. Test three square columns and three triangle columns the same way.
9. Find the mean for each shape and draw a bar graph.

Write each number in your results table the moment you measure it.

I changed: Column shape   I measured: how many books it holds before it crumples (books)

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: column shape along the bottom, books up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

Write something every day you work on it, even the days you only gather things. More days? The three-page logbook prints from peabody.kids/science-fair/templates/logbook.

My hypothesis was ☐ right ☐ partly right ☐ not right.

I know because my numbers show:

What surprised me, or what might have gone wrong (7th and up):

Next time I would test:

Idea: Change a second thing: cut your sheets to 10, 15 and 20 cm tall, test the best shape at each height, and graph books held against height.

1. What made you want to ask this question? Say something like: I wanted to know: which paper column shape holds the most books?
2. What did you think would happen, and why? Say something like: I thought changing the shape of the paper column would change how many books it holds before it crumples, and I wrote down why.
3. What did you change, and what did you measure? Say something like: I changed the shape of the paper column (Round, Square, Triangle) and measured how many books it holds before it crumples in books.
4. What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? Say something like: I kept sheets of the same paper and the same height for every column the same, so only the shape of the paper column was different.
5. How many times did you test it? Say something like: 3 times at each of my 3 levels, and I found the middle number.
6. What did you find out? Show me in your numbers. Say something like: Look at my table: Round and Triangle gave different numbers, and here's the pattern.
7. Was your hypothesis right? How do you know? Say something like: My numbers show whether I was right, partly right or not, and I can show you where.
8. Did anything go wrong, or surprise you? Say something like: One try was odd, so I did it again and wrote it in my logbook.
9. If you did it again, what would you change or test next? Say something like: I'd change a second thing: cut your sheets to 10, 15 and 20 cm tall, test the best shape at each height, and graph books held against height.