Students compete in teams of two or three to design, build, and test a device to keep a water balloon from bursting when thrown as far as possible. The only materials teams can use are balloons and strings. Each device they build and test can consist of no more than five other balloons.

Watch the video below for an introduction to facilitating this activity.

Activity Length
About 60 minutes
Resource Type
Student Activities
Program Component
Discovery
Activity Type
Hands-on Activity
Engineering Type
Mechanical
Difficulty Level:
1
Balloon Burst Thumbnail
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