Mobius Strip

This is a simple, but amazing activity. The fun part of it is, the kids can do it all themselves and still be amazed at the results.

What the kids will experience:
*They will draw a line on one side of a piece of paper, but when they examine what they did, they will see a line on BOTH sides of the paper.
*They will cut a loop of paper in half lengthwise, and instead of falling apart, the loop gets longer.
*When they cut another loop, instead of falling into two separate loops, they create two interlocked loops.

Materials:
1. Paper, 2. Scissors, 3. Scotch tape (Cellophane/Invisible) 4. Pencils/Pens. 5. Optional: A Highlighter

How to do it. (It's more fun if the kids do it all themselves)
a. Take an 8.5x11 inch sheet of notebook paper and cut out 4 strips lengthwise. Each kid will get two strips.

b. Form a loop: twist one of the strips once, then tape the ends together. Take the other strip and twist it twice, then tape together the ends. To speed this step up, I have a lot of strips of tape ready and stuck on the edge of  rulers and give them out. Better yet, have a lot of tape and put the kids in small groups with someone in each group to help them.

c. Take a pencil or pen and, without lifting it off of the paper draw a line lengthwise down the middle of the strip, until you come back to where you started.

Look at both sides of the strip. Even though only one side of the loop was drawn on, both sides of the loop will have the line. Try it again, but this time with a highlighter and highlight just one edge without lifting up the highlighter. When the highlighting is complete, look at the strip. BOTH edges will be highlighted!

d. Cut down the middle line on the strip with one twist. When the last snip is made, be prepared for some "Oohs and Aaahs!" The loop will NOT fall in half, but become a larger loop.




e. Take the loop with the two twists and cut down the middle lengthwise
.
Hold up and look at the new creation. Instead of a larger loop, there are two loops, linked together.

Note: If you have the kids do it all, they will surprise themselves with each activity. A nice activity, that is inexpensive and entertaining.