Mazing Race

Game Designer / Creator

 * Created by Andy Geremia www.CerealBoxMaze.com

Game Summary
How challenging of a marble maze can you make with and cereal box and straws? Teams compete to create the most challenging marble maze out of a cereal box and 10 straws.

Players / Moderators

 * Target age group, 8 and up.
 * Teams of two or more people.

Game Set-up and Construction
Materials needed per team:
 * 1 cereal box with the front side cutaway (leaving a four sided ‘tray’), all boxes should be of similar size and construction
 * 10 paper art straws
 * 10 strips of paper of similar length and width of the straws
 * 1 scissor
 * 1 bottle craft glue or paste
 * 1 small marble

Set up:
 * Hand out the above items to each team, all except the marble which is handed out later.

Estimated costs:
 * Less than $0.50 per team, as all materials are common craft items.

How to Play / Game Rules

 * Within 30 minutes, teams are to create a challenging maze inside a box to move a marble from one corner of the box to the opposite corner. The goal is to have your maze take the longest amount of time to get the marble from corner to corner. See pictures below.
 * The maze must allow a marble to freely move through the maze by simply tilting the box (no jumping or holes allowed).
 * Use the paper strips to layout your maze design in your box. This allows various designs ideas to be visualized and discussed.
 * The strips of paper and straws may be cut into any size pieces.
 * Once a team has their desired design, each piece of paper is removed and replaced with a straw that is glued to the box. Designate a start corner “O” and stop corner “X”.
 * Wait until the glue has dried before proceeding (a few hours or the next day).
 * Place a marble in each maze.
 * Assign two students as time keepers for each maze (use two timer keepers for accuracy)
 * Every student try’s each maze only ONCE while being timed (no re-try’s for a better time).
 * Document the time for every students try on a maze (jumping any straw disqualifies you)
 * Calculate the average time for each maze design to determine the most challenging maze.

Templates / Diagrams
Some samples of real-world mazes being made:



Related Web Links

 * Video of completed marble maze: http://youtu.be/c74EpdJIdTk

Other Details
Discuss the designs, and probe for design ideals to make a maze more challenging. Continue the game later in the week by allowing additional straw pieces to be added to their maze. Vary the game allowing different amounts of time or straws to create new challenges. As this ‘game’ is conducted multiple times, see how the designs evolve over time.