Our first task was to make a spaghetti tower using only 30 noodles and 25 marshmallows. The students were placed in groups of 3, and they had two science class periods to work. The goal was to build the tallest standing structure. Once the students got their supplies they got right to work with enthusiasm. Groups were sketching out ideas they thought might work and tried to apply their design to their tower.
Groups soon found that this was more challenging than they anticipated. Spaghetti noodles are not strong building supplies and marshmallows are gooey. Several groups had to design and redesign. This can lead to frustration, and how the groups handled this frustration definitely impacted their outcome.
On the third day we measured our towers and discussed the process. Every group ended with a standing tower which is a success! I asked the students what they found surprising about the process. They agreed that the supplies were not easy to work with. They said that it was frustrating when their ideas didn't work. They were surprised how difficult it was to translate their design on paper to the noodles and marshmallows. Having 3 voices in a group was challenging because there were so many ideas to work through. I asked the class how this relates to engineering, and they could see that engineers may have to try their ideas and design many times before it works.
I asked the class how cooperation is important to this project. They agreed that keeping a positive attitude was so important. Groups that had a more difficult time listening to each other's ideas were not as successful in the end. Some students said they thought it would be easier to just do this project by themselves so they didn't have to try anybody else's ideas. Other students said that working alone wouldn't be the best strategy because you may run out of ideas when it wasn't working.
This is a fun project with so many great lessons!
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