Marshmallow Tower Challenge

Sections

Challenge Areas

Scout Method Elements

SPICES Growth Areas

The Adventure

Test your engineering skills by building a tower using spaghetti!

Plan

Investigate different types of structures and how they are designed.

Give each Patrol the following items:

• 20 sticks of dry spaghetti
• 1 metre of string
• 1 metre of masking tape
• 1 marshmallow

Do

You have 20 minutes to construct a tower using only the spaghetti, string, and masking tape. Your tower must be able to support the weight of a marshmallow at the top.

You are aiming for the highest tower, which is standing unsupported with the marshmallow on the top when time is called.

You may tape the tower to the table. Spaghetti pieces can be snapped into smaller pieces.

Review

• What design features or shapes worked the best?
• How did you join the pieces of spaghetti together?
• What did you learn about materials? Is spaghetti a good structural material? Why or why not?

Variations

• Instead of a tower, build a bridge between two tables.
• Change the parameters for the challenge. Reduce the time allowance, or the tape and string allowances.
• Require the structure to stand by itself without being taped to the table.