The competition is a metaphor for historical analysis and perspectives. After the competition is complete, students look around the room at the other paper chains to discover that each group had different supplies (some supplies that were advantages and some supplies that were disadvantages). In the debrief of this activity, students reflect on how a historical event can be looked at from multiple perspectives; in the same way, each student would describe the "paper chain competition" differently based on their perspective and point of view.