NGSS and The Marshmallow Challenge Builds Community

Inquiry Science and Investigation into the Marshmallow:

In our graduate science course at UC Davis, we have been training in the Next Generation Science Standards. We ended our class with the the marshmallow challenge. The Marshmallow Challenge is a team building activity where groups work together to build the tallest freestanding structure using a measured amount of spaghetti, string, masking tape, and a marshmallow at the top. My cohort loved it, and we felt so much closer after working together in the 18 minutes to create a structure. My teams structure ultimately fell over too soon, but we were still having a great time seeing all the other structures that our cohort built. There is a fantastic video on the official website (see link above in purple) that talks about why kindergartners are more successful than most people. This activity really made me aware of how important the process is over the product. The notion of making prototypes along the way and testing is brilliant, and I can't wait to do this with my class at the start of the year. It is a great way to reinforce teamwork, talk about engineering structures, and have fun in the classroom.

On Thanksgiving day, while the turkey was still cooking, my family and I had our own marshmallow challenge. It didn't matter so much who won (my husband and father did) but we all had a blast and felt like we had accomplished something together that we could be truly grateful for. This picture is of the victors and their structure. They used lots of reinforcement and modeled it after the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

                                                          A list of what I am grateful for :

  • My Family: who is always there for me supporting in everything that I do, even though since I've been in graduate school it seems like I've disappeared into books and the classroom
  • My Cohort: who make coming to class even more fun and can always know exactly what I'm going through
  • The rain that fell during Thanksgiving. You watered my garden and made everything perk up.
  • The coffee in my cup in the morning and the food in my tummy.
  • For all the new experiences this year in student teaching that are expanding my mind and heart.
  • Being healthy enough to run the annual 5k again this year. This picture was taken after the 1980s themed 5K that I run with my husband every year in San Francisco. Having an annual check in with my fitness level is good inspiration to keep running all year. When I tell my students about this they are really motivated to put in that extra effort into training for the mile run. I can't wait to share with them about this year. It was at Crissy Field instead of Golden Gate Park this year. The weather and view was amazing
  • For meeting wonderful professionals, like the superintendent of Vacaville while doing observations. We got to observe some classrooms that have completely integrated technology into the classroom in innovative and inspirational ways.

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