On Friday, August 31st, my students and I participated in our first project of the year. We participated in the Marshmallow Challenge. The Marshmallow Challenge is a remarkably fun and instructive design exercise that encourages teamwork, collaboration, innovation, and most importantly creativity. The task is simple. I split my students into groups of 3 to 4 and gave them specific directions. I told them that as a team, they must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top at the end of the 18 minutes. The Marshmallow Challenge was invented by Peter Skillman of Palm Inc. and popularized by Tom Wujec of Autodesk just a couple of years ago. Globally experimented, it has been tested from kindergarteners to graduate students, all the way to some of today´s most successful executives and leaders. I personally had the opportunity to participate in the Marshmallow Challenge during a summer in-service workshop and was amazed by the outcomes of it. I decided to have my students participate in this project at the beginning of the year because I strongly believe it will serve as a valuable lesson on teamwork building and collaboration, as well as give them an opportunity to get to know their classmates better.
 
The objective behind this project was to allow my students to experience a simple but profound lesson in collaboration, innovation, and creativity.
 

 
 

       

       

       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       

THE WINNERS!!!
 

Parents, if you'd like to view The Marshmallow Challenge pictures closer, please visit my Classroom Facebook Page and view my Photo Albums.