Mazes look pretty simple to us. After all, we humans have a top-down view and can easily spot the solution of a small maze. But a rat down in the maze can't see the whole thing. From a rat's perspective, the maze's solution is not obvious at all! To experience what a maze might be like for a rat, try this project.

You'll need two sheets of paper and a pencil.

On the first sheet of paper, draw or print out a hole with a diameter no wider than the width of one of your maze corridors. Cut out the hole.

Print out this hole on the middle of a sheet of paper. Cut out the hole. Here's the hole centered on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.

On the second sheet of paper print out one of the mazes below.

Now place the first sheet of paper over the maze, positioning the hole over the start location. Move the hole along the first corridor and try to solve the maze. It may help if you use a pencil to draw your path on the maze through the hole -- this will help you know where you've been. Have fun!

• Try a computerized version, the Rat Maze Simulator
• Read more about what we learn from rats and mazes.