STEM Area: Engineering, Design

Grade Level: K-8

Activity Type: Design Challenge

About:

Build a structure that can support the weight of a marshmallow using only spaghetti and tape. Students quickly design and test different structures within an 18-minute time limit.

Materials:

• Uncooked, thick spaghetti
• Full-size marshmallows
• Brown lunch sacks (optional)
• 100 cm of masking tape
• Scissors
• Science journal
• Pencil
• Meter stick or metric tape measure
• Stopwatch or other timer

NGSS Standards

MS-ETS1-2

Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

3-5-ETS1-2

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

K-2-ETS1-3

Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

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NASA JPL

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