How To Make A Cardboard Marble Run

Make A Marble For Easy STEM

Get ready to explore many fun physics concepts such as gravity, energy, and motion with a fun, hands-on activity that uses common materials for recycled STEM.

I chose a blank wall to set up for our cardboard tube marble run. You can also use the refrigerator or door! Additionally, you can use a large cardboard box opened up as a flat surface.

Supplies:

• Free printable challenge sheet (see below)
• Painter’s tape (gentle on walls instead of masking tape)
• Cardboard tubes (paper towel tubes, rolls, toilet paper rolls, etc.)
• Scissors
• Marbles or small balls
• Tissue boxes (to collect the marbles at the end)

💡Note: You can add other materials to create interesting marble run ideas. Cups, packaging materials, toys, and other items bound for the recycling bin could be interesting features in a marble run (like our water wall). 

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How to Build a Marble Run:

First: Design Your Marble Run. Start by thinking about how to build a marble run. Consider where the marble begins and ends, and experiment with different angles. The steeper the angle, the faster the marble will roll! Planning your run helps teach basic engineering design and problem-solving as you figure out how to get the marble from start to finish. 

💡 Make a combination of tunnels, chutes, and towers of different lengths to create different angles! Learn about the Engineering Design Process (free printable) and test those problem solving skills.

Second: Set Up the Wall Marble Run. Now it’s time to get building! Use painter’s tape to attach the cardboard tubes to the wall in your chosen design. Make sure the tubes connect well so the marble can roll smoothly from one to the next. Add multiple levels to your DIY marble run!

💡Tip: Older kids can cut apart the paper towel tubes or use paper plates to create additional elements, such as spirals.

Third: Test Your Marble Run Once your cardboard marble run is in place, test it! Place the marble at the top and watch it race through the tubes. Adjust the angles or add new tubes if it doesn’t work as expected. Testing and redesigning are key parts of the STEM design process, allowing kids to learn through experimentation.

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The Science Behind the Marble Run:

Gravity is the force that pulls objects toward the center of the Earth. In the case of your DIY marble run, gravity causes the marble to roll down the ramp. The steeper the ramp’s angle, the more gravity pulls the marble downward, making it move faster. You can demonstrate this by comparing marbles rolling down ramps of different angles and observing how quickly they move.

Learning Tip: Ask kids, “What would happen without gravity?” This is a fun way to introduce the importance of gravity in motion. Learn more [here].

Kinetic and Potential Energy:

When the marble sits at the top of the ramp, it has stored energy called potential energy. The higher the marble is placed, the more potential energy it has. As the marble starts to move, its potential energy turns into kinetic energy, which is the energy of motion. The faster the marble moves, the more kinetic energy it has. The steeper the ramp, the more potential energy is converted into kinetic energy, and the faster the marble moves.

Learning Tip: Have the kids experiment with placing the marble at different heights and discuss how the energy changes from potential to kinetic as it rolls. Learn about energy [here].

Momentum: Momentum is the object’s motion, which depends on its mass and speed. A heavier marble or a marble moving at a higher speed will have more momentum and can roll farther once it reaches the end of the ramp. This is why adding a heavier marble to a run might travel further after exiting the last tube than a lighter or slower marble.

Learning Tip: Test out different marbles or small balls of different weights to explore how mass impacts momentum.

Acceleration: Acceleration is the rate at which an object’s speed changes. As the marble rolls down the slope, it accelerates in a marble run due to gravity. The steeper the hill, the greater the acceleration. This means the marble will pick up speed faster on steeper inclines compared to more gentle slopes.

Learning Tip: Kids can experiment with different ramp angles to observe how the acceleration changes based on the slope’s steepness.

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Extension Activities:

Weight Variation: By testing marbles of different weights, kids can see how mass affects speed and distance. Heavier marbles may travel faster on a steep incline because they have more momentum. This helps kids understand that the mass of an object can influence its movement, which is tied to Newton’s Second Law of Motion (force equals mass times acceleration) and momentum.

Marble Run Timing Challenge: Kids can learn about speed and acceleration by using a stopwatch to time how long each marble takes to complete the run. They can compare the time taken on different ramp designs and angles. This introduces the concept of velocity—the speed of an object in a specific direction. The more efficient the design, the quicker the marble will complete the run.

Obstacle Course: Adding obstacles like paper cups or tape barriers on the run challenges kids to solve problems while considering how motion and momentum are affected. The marble may slow down or change direction when it encounters obstacles, allowing kids to see how forces like collision or resistance affect motion.

Marble Run with a Twist: Introducing jumps or gaps between the tubes introduces the idea of projectile motion—the marble moves along a curved path due to gravity after leaving one section of the run and “jumping” to another. Kids must adjust their designs to ensure the marble lands in the correct spot, which taps into their understanding of trajectory and motion.

Additional Marble Run Ideas

• Make a marble maze on a paper plate.
• Use LEGO to create a marble maze.
• Cardboard marble roller coaster with tubes.
• Pool Noodle Marble Run from noodles cut in half.
• Use water instead of marble outside with a DIY water wall.

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More Fun Engineering Projects

When you finish with your cardboard marble run, why not explore more engineering with one of these ideas below. You can find all our engineering activities for kids here!

Build a DIY solar oven.

Set up this erupting bottle rocket.

Create a sundial to tell the time by.

Make a homemade magnifying glass.

Build a compass and work out which way is true north.

Construct a working Archimedes screw simple machine.

Make a paper helicopter and explore motion in action.

Get started with STEM and engineering projects today with this fantastic resource that includes all the information you need to complete more than 80 activities that encourage STEM skills!

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