Final Minute of the Marshmallow Challenge

The last minute of a classroom application of The Marshmallow Challenge, a brainstorming and teambuilding game promoted by Tom Wujec and Peter Skillman at TED.

The goal of the challenge is to build the largest free-standing structure possible using a handful of spaghetti, some string, and some tape. The structure is literally topped off with a marshmallow. The team with the tallest structure wins.

Once the "mallow towers" have been built and measured the lecturer will then talk about the secrets and application of The Marshmallow Challenge. All in all this was a fun activity to facilitate and the students loved it.

During this particular iteration of the game the largest structure was built by a team that included architects and engineers, while the second-largest structure was built by a mix of common college and high-school students. Both of these teams had structures over 65cm, which is far above the average height of 50cm. On the other hand, half of the teams failed to build a tower, which is consistent with global results.

I strongly recommend bringing The Marshmallow Challenge to your classroom or your boardroom. You'll be surprised at what people will learn, and they'll be talking about it for weeks!

For materials and background on the challenge, please visit http://www.marshmallowchallenge.com/.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• The Marshmallow Challenge
• TED
• education
• brainstorming
• classroom
• China