Seventh Grade and Kindergarten Collaborate on Marshmallow Challenge

Seventh grade students recently worked with kindergarten students to complete the Marshmallow Challenge. The instructive design exercise encourages teams to experience simple but profound lessons in collaboration, innovation and creativity. Teams had eighteen minutes to build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The kindergartners brainstormed and created plans for their structures on their own. The seventh graders, who had already completed the project as a class, were there to support and observe. The seventh graders plan to compare results from both classes and share their findings with the kindergarteners.