Challenge, The Second!

Another week and another STEM challenge.  This week everyone was in groups of three and their task was to make the tallest tower that would stand on its' own.  The materials were toothpicks and marshmallows.

Groups began by taking a few minutes to plan their masterpiece before construction commenced.

Next, materials were handed out and construction began.  An interesting thing happened along the way. Teamwork is a foreign concept to most of the students.  Even after explicit instructions, many thought they were all building their own tower.  We stopped the timer and talked about working together toward a common goal.  This is a skill we will be working on throughout the year.  The timer was reset to 20 minutes and the challenge began in earnest.

 We had a lot of unique design concepts, some of which worked better in practice than other.  Most groups found they had to adapt their design ideas as the reality of the construction materials became apparent.  In the end, some fell before measuring and few turned out the way the students had intended at the beginning of the challenge.  The winner was 1.5 cm taller than the second place finisher.

After the challenge we debriefed and the students decided that the weight of the marshmallows was a determining factor and that the challenge would have been very different if we had used mini marshmallows.  We talked about the challenges of making real buildings out of steal, wood and brick and how heavy they are. In the end, the students said they had fun, but their brains had to work hard.

As a reward for all of their hard work, the students got to eat their towers!