BLOCKS/LEGO CHALLENGE #2

Create a Maze

 

Have you already played labyrinth, or maze, games, like the one below?  Where you start drawing a line at one opening, working your way down and around the alleys and in and out of the dead ends, until you reach the exit on the other side?  

 

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For hundreds of years, people have planted bushes close together to form solid hedges in a maze pattern, often toward a center point.  You walk through those mazes to get to the center and then on to the exit – it can be difficult if the hedges have grown higher than your head!

 

A myth of ancient Greece describes how Theseus, a prince, found his way to the center of a labyrinth, unrolling a ball of string after him.  There he killed a terrible monster, the Minotaur.  Theseus was able to exit the labyrinth safely by following the string path he’d laid for himself.

 

The detective work comes in figuring out the path to follow to journey in and out of the maze.

 

This video shows you how to get out of most planted mazes – a trick we hadn’t seen before but can’t wait to try out on the next maze we run across!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l9IMXd33K4 (2:44)

 

 

Scientists have also used mazes to evaluate the reasoning, memory, and attention skills of rodents, such as mice and rats, and to track learned behavior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s part of the story in Beverly Cleary’s book, “Ralph S. Mouse”!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And here are some videos of mice and hamster mazes:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd_gyIEjwpg (6:19) A mouse in a Lego maze 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBRFkyCTeSk (2:11) A hamster maze

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl4cmSvms98 (10:17) The world’s largest hamster maze and obstacle course

 

So your challenge is to create a maze out of blocks or Lego.

 

Here are some ideas for testing your maze out:

 

If you use Legos or other connecting blocks, build your maze on a tray or board that you can lift and tilt.  Once the maze is built, use a marble to roll around it, controlled just by your tipping the board from left to right and from front to back.

 

If your maze is going to be too big for a tray or board, you could test it by laying a string through the paths you have created, like Theseus!

 

If you have a pet mouse or hamster, you could build the maze for it, and tempt it to reach the end with a treat.  Make the maze big enough and try it on a dog or cat!

 

Finally, this would be the perfect time to take a labyrinth game out for a spin:

 

 

 

 

 

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