Ms E & Mrs J Grade 4 Class 25-26: Marshmallow Challenge

We took part in Ms Elder's Marshmallow Challenge! Our goal was to build the tallest possible structure using 20 pieces of raw spaghetti, 1 m of tape, and 1 meter of string. We were allowed to use scissors. You can't lean the tower against anything and if it falls down, it doesn't count. After we're done building it, we have to put a marshmallow on top.

Our tallest tower was 89 cm. We had three groups score above 80 cm, which is as good as engineers and architects do on this challenge!

Here are some pictures of us building our towers:

Student Quotes:

"It was hard to make the base of the tower because the spaghetti was so delicate and snapped very easily." ~ Gillian

"My group decided to use triangles and it worked really well for the first one. For the second one, I think we made it too tall and heavy." ~ EF

"Our group got the supplies. When we were building it, we did not really need the rope because we thought the tape would make it strong." ~ HC

"On the first one, our design was really bad because people were arguing way too much. On the second one, we figured out a better design. It kept on leaning so we had to keep adding spaghetti to hold it up." ~ CB

"We had to be patient to do this because our first tower, we weren't so patient and it fell down. We didn't give it support and we were nervous about time." ~ AA

"While we were stacking the spaghetti, it kept leaning over. So we put some spaghetti on the side so it wouldn't bend over." ~ Fatima

"We were using little bits of tape at the end because we didn't have much left and then at the last minute, it just fell." ~ EK

"On the first structure, we had to combine all our ideas together and that made it really strong 'cause a lot of people wanted to make it really strong but I also wanted to make it be able to stand." ~ Wynn

"We just started to make a pyramid then we started to make the tower, then put the marshmallow. The next idea was to make another tower and connect the marshmallow with the spaghetti and then it didn't balance so we added that extra thing then it was leaning." ~ Ekagra

"We started with a tipi, then when we made it taller, it started to fall over so we made two things to like support it." ~ Oliver

"I think it's not that your group picks a leader, I think somebody just starts leading." ~ JR

"We made a big base but we added too much spaghetti on the top so it leaned a lot." ~ KD

"We used support beams and we taped them to the ground to keep them standing up and that worked." ~JA

Here are some pictures of us working on our journal entries. We needed to write a paragraph describing our challenges and successes as a team, as well as draw and label a sketch of our tower.