Using tape, string, spaghetti and a marshmallow, Thomasville City Scholars Academy Advanced Placement Psychology (APPSY) students in Dale Kelly’s class were challenged with building the tallest free-standing structure in a limited time period. Pictured is the winning team whose structure reached 34.5 inches: Braxton Sizemore, Thomas Butler, Madyson Whitfield, and Meta Ughetto.
Kelly’s APPSY classes engaged in the activity when studying divergent thinking within the “Intelligence” unit. The marshmallow challenge, used for exercises in creativity and leadership, was originally introduced by Peter Skillman at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design). The idea is pretty simple: Teams of four have to build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string and a marshmallow. Other groups at Scholars Academy like Odyssey of the Mind that lean on design, creativity, and leadership to achieve goals have used the activity to practice collaboration and to focus on roles in an organization.