Spaghetti and marshmallows hardly sound appetizing together in a recipe. But they were key ingredients in an engineering challenge embraced by a 6th-grade math class at Ogden Avenue School in La Grange.
Students had just 20 minutes Thursday to build the tallest, free-standing, stable tower out of 20 pieces of uncooked spaghetti, a yard of string and a yard of masking tape. The structures also had to support a marshmallow on top.
Some groups started taping slender structures of noodles together right away. Other students debated their options and laid out various configurations before applying tape.
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Everybody was watching the clock, even as math teacher Colleen Korzen gave out frequent updates on time remaining.
Korzen said she incorporates a monthly challenge to develop science, technology, engineering and math skills, and students really look forward to rolling up their sleeves.
“It’s another way for them to work together and extend their thinking,” she said.
Most groups built a base shaped like an X, square or triangle and attached single strands pointing upward.
But Leah West, Allison Siepman and Brooke Chomko decided to bundle their strands together for a thicker base.
“We thought by putting more weight on the bottom, that would help hold it up,” Allison explained. “The spaghetti snaps easily.”
The creative energy of several teams peaked too soon. Although their towers were more than a foot tall, students found the brittle supports couldn’t hold the marshmallow up for too long. The towers swayed and fell over.
When time was up, Team SMAC emerged as the victor with a 20-inch tower able to hold up the marshmallow.
“I learned teamwork is really important. We need to listen to each other,” said Sofia Hannon, a member of the winning team. “We could have used more tape and more time.”
Teammate Charlotte Sands also said communication was a challenge.
“It was hard when everybody talked over each other,” she said.
Daniel Klos said he learned the importance of testing the design along the way, because once his team’s tower collapsed, they were out of options.
“It might be good to build different pieces at different times, so we’re not all grabbing the same stuff at once,” he said.
Ross Dziallo suggested repeating the assignment at the end of the year to see how teams would approach the challenge differently.
“We obviously could have done a few things better, and we needed a backup plan,” said Sara Schier. “But it was really fun.”
Twitter: @janemmichaels22