Jacob & Jack The first week of school, the fifth graders took on the Marshmallow Challenge. I thougt it was a great way to begin working in cooperative groups to problem solve. My students were given minimal instuctions and 18 minutes to build the tallest, free-standing structure out of spaghetti, tape, and string that would support the weight of a large marshmallow. Each group met with varying degrees of success. The fascinating conversation that came out of our discovery time was over cheating. One group was frustrated because they felt like the other groups had copied their original idea of a triangle base. What ensued was a conversation about when copying another person's idea is a bad idea (on a test in Mrs. Bean's class!) and when it might lead to greater things (the Wright Brothers success at building the first successful airplane based on a combination of designs of those before them.) Sometimes when participating in creative endeavors, we need to "stand on the backs of giants" to reach new heights. I think we'll try this challenge again later this year and see what kind of new skills and learning they might be able to apply and what great conversations might be sparked again. http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html
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Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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