During the first week of school, students in Mr. Alex Krick’s math classes at Wyomissing Area JSHS were greeted not with complex arithmetic problems, but with the marshmallow and spaghetti tower challenge.
Each team of two to four students was given 20 pieces of spaghetti, 20 mini- marshmallows, one large marshmallow, and one foot of tape. The challenge was to create a tower that lifted the large marshmallow as high off the ground as possible. Each team had five minutes to create a blueprint before the challenge began.
“This sets the tone for our entire year,” Mr. Krick explains. “It gets the students communicating, collaborating, and problem-solving…skills that they will need regardless of their grade or skill level.”
Oh, and the tallest tower of the day? Twenty-one inches!