Marshmallow Challenge

The week before Spring break we got to experience the Marshmallow challenge. This game was really fun and a great introduction to design and teamwork. I liked this game because it required you to think out loud and work together as a team. We had to quickly think about what would make this work, listen to each others ideas, and constantly rapid prototype as we went through the building process. It was challenging because we were under pressure with a time limit but still needed to be patient and listen to each others ideas and not break the supplies (like the spaghetti). When we began we quickly grabbed supplies and all started building our structure. We were thinking out loud as we would try things and then asked each other what they thought. We first tried connecting all the spaghetti with marshmallows but then realized it was making it too heavy. Then we started over agin and decided to connect each piece with tape. We saw that making a triangle base was stronger than a square base. As we connected each piece we all helped each other to connect, tape, build, and check to see if it would hold the weight of the marshmallow. If it didn't hold then we made adjustments as our partners held on to the structure until it was strong enough to hold the marshmallow. I thought our group worked really well together. We communicated and used teamwork to make the tallest self standing structure in the class! I'm definitely going to use this challenge with my students to teach them about team work and design. I teach 5th graders so I think it will be a great challenge for them to be patient with each other and listen to everyones ideas. I would also like to give my students a second chance to improve. I have a feeling they will have a hard time at first but then would learn a lot and want to improve on the second time around. Team work is something we are working on with our students and they are slowly starting to realize that they are stronger together than by themselves.