STEM Activity: Tower Shower

Are you ready to think like a problem solver? With this competitive STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activity, you can devise a plan to take down your opponent’s shaving cream tower using spray bottles filled with water. Just like an inventor, you’ll have to think outside the box and find a way to defeat your opponent while protecting your tower from incoming attacks!

Materials Needed

• Masking tape or string
• Shaving cream
• Spray bottles (clean)
• Upcycled materials (e.g., cardboard boxes, plastic containers, bubble wrap, unwanted toys, etc.)
• Water

Step-by-Step Instructions 

1. Find friends or family members and split into two teams to play Tower Shower!
    
2. Tell everyone that the objective is to knock down the opposing person or team’s shaving cream tower by squirting water and dissolving it.
    
3. Set up two table surfaces in an open area outdoors and place a bottle of shaving cream at each station.
    
4. Make a line out of masking tape or string on the ground, about 2 feet away from each station.
    
5. Grab a clean, empty spray bottle for each participant and fill each one with water, then place them near each station line.
    
6. Have each person (or team) make the tallest tower of shaving cream possible, using one can each.
    
7. Once each tower is complete, teams should use upcycled materials to construct an invention that can protect their structure from oncoming water.
    
8. When both sides are ready, each person or team must stand behind the opposing person or team’s line.
    
9. Say, “Ready, set, go!” and encourage each person to start spraying the other side’s tower.
    
10. The first person or team to fully dissolve their opponent’s tower is the winner!
     
11. For even more STEM fun, engage in multiple rounds! Encourage participants to improve on their protective invention each time by making adjustments and improvements.

What Are We Discovering?

Using water to hit targets is challenging and exciting! Solving challenges, being competitive and taking time for fun can all be important parts of inventing.

National Inventors Hall of Fame^® Inductee Lonnie Johnson is an entrepreneur and the inventor of the Super Soaker^®, a popular toy generating well over $1 billion in sales over its lifetime. In 1989, Johnson formed his engineering firm and licensed this toy — his most famous invention — to Larami Corp. The Super Soaker became the bestselling toy in America two years later.

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*Super Soaker is a registered trademark of HASBRO, INC.