The Marshmallow Challenge – Team Activity
Each team gets the following, 20 Spaghetti Sticks, 1 meter Sticky tape, A Marshmallow and a string of 1 metre length.
The challenge is that a tallest possible structure needs to be built using the items given with the Marshmallow on the top. It should be a freestanding, can’t be hanged to roof or something or struck to the table. Time given is 18 mins.
There were four teams. It was quite tricky because, the Spaghetti sticks are fragile, breaking and bending. Somehow, our team was able to stand up a structure measuring 64 cms. The 1st one was a 89cms tall tower and the team got the award of a bag of Marshmallows.
Lessons learnt were many –
- Importance of building Prototypes.Trying different approaches early helps to find out, what works and what doesn’t.
- Teamwork and Planning
- Test assumptions early and often – the Marshmallow needs to be standing on whatever you build
- A good foundation to sustain the whole weight
- Resource Management
- Ability to work as per set goals
- Time Management.
This activity was tried at few different work places, schools etc. It was noticed that 4th to 5th Grade Children have performed the best and so are Engineers.
And Of course, the Aim is to have some fun as a team and learn something at the same time.