Mommio: Rat Games

Yesterday afternoon our parkday with the Weaver's was shortened by extemely cold wind so we headed over to our house and set the kids up to build a maze for the rats.  Here's the gang who did the planning and building:

 First, Gabe and I showed them a pattern for a maze that we had seen on the internet a few months ago.  The point of the maze is to put different items at the end of each lane and then set the rat in the center and find out what he/she likes best by recording the frequency of visits to the end of each lane.  The kids liked the idea of this pattern:

 Then they came up with a list of what to put at the end of each lane and also a guess as to what each of the three rats would like the most:

 To build the maze we chose a big cardboard box.  The kids measured and we helped cut, until there were enough pieces for six lanes:

 After looking the pieces over, we all decided to make some adjustments to the patterns so that it would be easier to put together.  Here's the new pattern:

 But when we started setting the pieces up we quickly realized there was no need for space between the lanes, so the final pattern was developed:

 We helped the kids to lay out the pieces for a look at how to put it together:

 Then we walked away (literally) and let them get to the taping:

 They did such a great job, when we came back about 15 minutes later they were at this stage:

 After some extra taping for reinforcement we pulled out Bowser to test the maze for us.  He was great in helping us find little places that needed more tape:

 When the maze was finished the kids gathered the items needed and placed them at the end of each lane:

Then we gathered the audience and the rats were brought out one at a time.  It was really fun to watch, although in the end it turns out the rats were all much more interested in the kids and getting to them than in the items in the maze.  Here are the three trials:






In the end, we found that the kids had guessed right about what some of the rats would like the most.  Everyone was surprised by how much they all liked the rat poop...but we learned that the smell of their own home was what they were drawn to.  We also talked about how to improve this the next time we make a maze.  The most important thing to do differently is build the outsides of the maze higher so that the rats are not constantly looking over the edge.  And next time the kids want to work on building a real maze...should be fun!