Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to design a tower out of some scrap paper, straws, and popsicle ticks that is at least 18" tall, holds a tennis ball, and stands up through hurricane force winds (applied via a 9" fan). At the IDOT construction career fair at McCormick place, over a hundred students took the challenge. Most succeeded. The tallest tower was over 30" high. The exercse illustrated the critical thinking that engineers use to design tall buildings.