Background
"Barbed wire permanently changed land uses and land values in Texas."
With the western expansion in the United States, people needed to keep cattle and crops separated. Fences were required, but there were few materials available in the Great Plains. People tried digging ditches, stacking mud, and creating thorny hedges, but these were not enough. In the 1870s, Joseph F. Glidden patented the first barbed wire design, known as “Winner” wire. Soon, what was once the open range in Texas was no more, and both the agricultural and the beef cattle industries in Texas grew.
Source: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/aob01
Mission
The most difficult thing about installing a fence in the West is installing fence posts to support the barbed wire. There are few trees and little lumber to build the posts. Can your team make two posts joined by wire pipe cleaners? Make it tall. The more note cards the teacher can hang on the pipe cleaners, the better!
Materials
12 inches of tape, 6 note cards, 4 paper clips, 4 paper cups, 4 pipe cleaners, 6 rubber bands, 8 straws
