My students competed in their first STEM Challenge this week. They worked in small groups to do the Marshmallow Challenge. Students had to build the tallest structure to support the marshmallow out of 20 strands of spaghetti, a piece of tape, and yarn. The winning team had a tower that reached 27 inches high! After completing the challenge, students watched and discussed the related TED Talk. Did you know that kindergarten students typically do better on this challenge than most adults?
Students also rated their team members on productivity and team building, detailed the Engineering Design Process used, pointed out careers relevant to the skills used during this challenge, and gave predictions of how they’d do if given this challenge again. This is where the real trash-talking began!
Here are some photos of the day.
