St. Mary Immaculate Parish School 6th Grade students given a Marshmallow Challenge

Students at St. Mary’s Challenged by Marshmallows

The 6th grade students at St. Mary Immaculate School were recently given a challenge. It was called the Marshmallow Challenge which is part of a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) project in Science class. STEM is an educational program developed to prepare students for college and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

The students were in small groups and were given a brown paper bag. They had no idea that in each bag they would find some long uncooked spaghetti, string, masking tape, and a marshmallow. Each group then had to build the tallest, freestanding structure. They had a few guidelines: the entire marshmallow must be on top of the structure; they could use as much or as little of the bag contents as they needed; they could break up the spaghetti, string, or tape; and they only had 18 minutes to complete the whole project.

The students had to use critical thinking, collaboration, and logical reasoning to complete the task given the guidelines. At the end of 18 minutes, all students had to step away from their creation and the judging began. Several structures immediately fell over; however, many were still standing. Science teacher, Stephanie Borto, along with the help of Technology Integration Coordinator, Jackie Fiske, began to debrief the experience with the students.

The students realized that everyone had the same materials and the same time constraints; however, how each group arrived at the final goal was completely different. No one group had the right or wrong process, but all had the same goal to achieve. It was good for the students to be able to apply prior knowledge, interpret and apply communications, engage with one another in inquiry and logical reasoning, and collaborate as a team.

Written By Jennifer Errthum

Assistant Principal