Paper Ball Run—2022 Engineering Challenge Results
Build a Ball Run with The Longest Path Time
The 2022 competition is over, but you can still try this challenge for fun! Can you build a ball ramp out of just paper and tape? How can you make the ball's path take as many seconds as possible to complete?
Full details, including the building, testing, and scoring procedures, can be found in these four formats:
- Paper Ball Run Instructions for Students
- Elementary School Paper Ball Run Lesson Plan
- Middle School Paper Ball Run Lesson Plan
- High School Paper Ball Run Lesson Plan
Congratulation to All Participants
During the 2022 Engineering Challenge window, over 11,000 students from 26 countries built a range of paper ball runs. We were impressed to see the range of designs students, ages 6 to 18, came up with. Using up to 30 sheets of paper and tape, some student teams built twisty paths, others opted for elements that added friction or flippers to pass through, and others tried out long, gently sloping runs. The goal was to create a ball run with the longest travel time and there were some truly innovative designs including an awesome use of a pulley system to bring the ping-pong ball up to the top of again and double the run time. What we were most impressed with though, is the effort and learning put in by so many students. Building a self-supporting structure out of just paper and tape can be difficult and we applaud every team for sticking with the task and problem-solving through the problems that arose.
Figure 1. A few of the teams who submitted paper ball runs for the 2022 Engineering Challenge
"I loved this challenge because my students were really engaged in this activity. I learned that some of them love building things like this, they loved the challenges they faced each day with it. One student told me he could not sleep one night because he was so excited about working on his paper ball run the next day. Thank you for this wonderful challenge and opportunity for my students to think like engineers!"
—Clara Potts, Teacher
Drawing Winners
All eligible team entries were placed into random prize drawings based on their geographic location. Congratulations to the ten winning teams listed in Table 1 whose names were drawn from the eligible pools! Each of these teams earned $1,000 USD from Fluor Corporation for their school.
| Team | School / Program |
|---|---|
| Houston Metropolitan Area, TX | |
| The Challenge Kids | Harmony School of Achievement in Houston, TX |
| Greenville Metropolitan Area, SC | |
| Rollers 2 | Summit Drive Elementary in Greenville, SC |
| Orange County, CA | |
| LosAlisosCA/LE | Los Alisos Intermediate in Mission Viejo, CA |
| Calgary, Alberta | |
| The 3 Amigos | Centennial High School in Calgary, Alberta |
| United States (including Puerto Rico) | |
| Team Unstoppable | White Co Middle School in Sparta, TN |
| Tiger 51 | New London Jr-Sr High School in New London, IA |
| Rollercoaster | Joseph A Taub School in Paterson, NJ |
| International | |
| CWS | Adelaide Botanic High School in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Awesome Horse | Miniota Elementary School in Miniota, Manitoba, Canada |
| Right or Pong | St. Mary's School Ascot in Ascot, Berkshire, England |
Top Ten Scores Overall
The 2022 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge, sponsored by Fluor Corporation, was open to students in grades K-12. The top 10 scores, overall, for the 2022 Challenge are shown in Table 2. All scores were validated by Science Buddies staff based on submission photos and the Challenge rules. Regardless of score, all entries that met the geographic requirements were entered in the random drawings.| Top Ten Paper Ball Run Scores (Overall) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | School/Program | Age (average) |
Score |
| Do well:) | Humboldt Park Elementary, Milwauke, WI, USA | 10 | 960 |
| Stars | Zion Heights Middle School, Toronto, Canada | 13 | 644 |
| Crescent Coyotes | Crescent School, Toronto, Canada | 10 | 480 |
| KopernikKW | III Liceum Ogólnokształcące Kopernik, Kalisz, Poland | 14 | 353.8 |
| B and O Rollercoasters | Holy Name Gifted Centre, Toronto, Canada | 12 | 247 |
| Route 66 | Woodlawn Middle School, Long Grove, IL, USA | 12 | 212 |
| Scientific Research 0 | Effingham College and Career Academy, Rincon, GA, USA | 15 | 200 |
| The Green Monster | Pierce School, Brookline, MA, USA | 12 | 190 |
| Ball-Tech Masters | Woodbury Elementary, Irvine, CA, USA | 10 | 188 |
| Glow In The Dark | Pierce School, Brookline, MA, USA | 11 | 182 |
Top Scores by Age
To recognize the hard work students did creating and testing their solutions and to give students a better sense of how their solutions and scores compare to other students of similar age, the tables and graphs below show the top scores and score distribution for submissions from ages up to age 10, 11-14, and 15-18. (Note: The age used for each team is the average age of all members on the team.)
Figure 2. A few of the teams, students ages 10 and younger, showing off their paper ball runs.
The distribution shows that approximately 240 teams had scores of less than zero, 350 had scores of zero to five, 275 had scores of five to ten, 300 had scores of 10 to 25, and the remaining approximately 100 teams had higher scores with only about ten having a score higher than 100.
| Top Ten Paper Ball Run Scores (Up to Age 10) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | School/Program | Age (average) |
Score |
| Do well:) | Humboldt Park Elementary, Milwauke, WI, USA | 10 | 960 |
| Crescent Coyotes | Crescent School, Toronto, Canada | 10 | 480 |
| Ball-Tech Masters | Woodbury Elementary, Irvine, CA, USA | 10 | 188 |
| Picture Perfect Builders | Stonybrook Elementary School, Kinnelon, NJ, USA | 10 | 116.4 |
| Blythe Bears | Blythe Academy, Greenville, SC, USA | 10 | 100 |
| Girls on Fire! | Philadelphia Elementary School, Philadelphia, MS, USA | 10 | 86 |
| Paper Run Master | Saint Mary’s School, Ballston Spa, NY, USA | 7 | 84.48 |
| Cloudy with a Chance of Victory | Stonybrook Elementary School, Kinnelon, NJ, USA | 10 | 74.8 |
| Francisco G Tomas LG Francp K | Instituto Ballester, Villa Ballester, Argentina | 9 | 72.5 |
| The Three Engineers | Cloverdale Traditional School, Victoria, Canada | 10 | 72 |
"We really liked this challenge. We worked together and our ball run got better and better. It was hard but fun. We want to do more contests like this!"
—Students from team The Mighty Snails, age 10
Figure 3. A sampling of teams, students ages 11 to 14, showing off their paper ball runs.
The distribution shows that approximately 175 teams had scores of less than zero, 750 had scores of between zero and ten, 600 had scores between ten and 20, 215 had scores between 25 and 30, and the remaining about 200 teams had higher scores with only about 25 teams having scores higher than 100 points.
| Top Ten Paper Ball Run Scores (Ages 11-14) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | School/Program | Age (average) |
Score |
| Stars | Zion Heights Middle School, Toronto, Canada | 13 | 644 |
| B and O Rollercoasters | Holy Name Gifted Centre, Toronto, Canada | 12 | 247 |
| Route 66 | Woodlawn Middle School, Long Grove, IL, USA | 12 | 212 |
| The Green Monster | Pierce School, Brookline, MA, USA | 12 | 190 |
| Glow In The Dark | Pierce School, Brookline, MA, USA | 11 | 182 |
| Skiing pandas | Primary School Affiliated to Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, China | 13 | 178 |
| The Gravity Girls | Keep Hatch Primary School, Wokingham, Berkshire, England | 11 | 164.5 |
| URIÓSTEGUI SALAZAR CARLOS DANIEL | Colegio Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mexico | 11 | 164.4 |
| AOS Dolphins | Annunciation Orthodox School, Houston, TX | 12 | 142 |
| The Team | Zion Heights Middle School, Toronto, Canada | 13 | 140 |
"I think that my favorite part about the 2022 engineering challenge was the part where we actually got to build the paper contraption that we would roll our ping pong ball down. Designing the system and doing the hands-on work was really enjoyable and fun. I would definitely like to do more of this kind of project in the future."
—Student from team Plinko, age 13
Figure 4. Several teams, students ages 15 to 18, showing off their pager ball runs.
| Top Ten Paper Ball Run Scores (Ages 15-18) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | School/Program | Age (average) |
Score |
| KopernikKW | III Liceum Ogólnokształcące Kopernik, Kalisz, Poland | 18 | 353.8 |
| Scientific Research 0 | Effingham College and Career Academy, Rincon, GA, USA | 15 | 200 |
| Pauline Isidro | PAREF Woodrose School, Muntinlupa City, Philippines | 18 | 153.8 |
| LCHS - 1 | Lehman Catholic High School, Sidney, OH, USA | 17 | 146.24 |
| The Competent | Centennial High School, Calgary, Canada | 17 | 136 |
| Team Orange | Northwood High, Irvine, CA, USA | 16 | 135 |
| Kopernikowcy | III Liceum Ogólnokształcące Kopernik, Kalisz, Poland | 16 | 130 |
| The Nerd Herd | Christian Life Academy, Seneca, PA, USA | 18 | 114.6 |
| power girls | III Liceum Ogólnokształcące Kopernik, Kalisz, Poland | 15 | 114 |
| Group 1 | Bishop O'Byrne High School, Calgary, Canada | 17 | 113 |
"We loved the simplicity of this year's challenge in terms of materials. Our students had a GREAT time designing, planning, building, and revising their Paper Ball Runs! We found that this challenge worked very well across all levels of science, from "on-grade level" to honors. We appreciate the introductory video and handout as springboards to launch the project; everything was classroom ready and required very little additional prep for the teachers. My students were engaged and worked really took pride in the work that they did together. Most importantly, this challenge gave my students an authentic team-building experience right before spring break. Thank you for organizing this every year."
—Dela Cruz, Teacher
