You will need:
- A packet of spaghetti
- A packet of marshmallows
- A measuring tape
- A dustpan and broom nearby (expect lots of spaghetti breakages!)
- Patience!
Have a think about how the base of your marshmallow tower will work.
- Will this be a triangle?
- What about a square?
- Why not try a pentagon?
This planning will help you in the long run! Start to form the base of your tower by gently pushing the spaghetti strands into your marshmallows.
Begin to form some height with your spaghetti strands. You might try going straight upwards or perhaps you might want to try smaller modular units that can be put together repetitively.
If trying the modular route, consider how this will scale upwards as you build. Keep the dimensions the same for each unit if you choose this build strategy!
Try different shapes! You might find that you need to create some extra ‘connector marshmallows’ to hold your shape together!
Does this tell you something about how the forces work within your tower?
Get the Unit of Work on Forces here!
- Push, pull
- Friction & spin!
From inertia to centripetal force, this unit covers many concepts about Newton’s Laws!
Includes cross-curricular teaching ideas, student quizzes, a sample marking rubric, scope & sequences & more
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What is this about?
Building marshmallow and spaghetti towers is really about exploring forces and construction materials.
- Spaghetti can a little bit of force travelling down the length of the strand but will very quickly snap if it is bent. This means that you need to consider how force is transferred through each spaghetti strand. You would have found that the arrangement of your spaghetti strands into triangular shapes would have produced the most stable structure. This is not a coincidence! Triangles have been used for several thousand years to transfer forces evenly through structures such as the pyramids, bridges and houses.
- Marshmallows are gooey in their centre. This means that the marshmallows can be easily torn if a shearing force is applied. You would have found that your marshmallows also introduced a mass distribution problem… too many marshmallows to one side and the tower would have fallen down!
Applications
Understanding how forces flow through a structure is critical for engineering. These days, computer modelling is applied to test the effect of different structural arrangements and material types to determine the optimum design of a building. Every material have known breaking points, plus different arrangement of materials produces different arrangements of compression forces (squishing together) and tension forces (pulling apart) in different areas. If the structure is not strong enough to handle those forces, the structure is at risk of breaking apart.
Variables to explore
- Try different brands or ages of marshmallows. Does this make a difference?
- Would binding spaghetti strands together increase the strength, and thereby height, of your tower?
- Try using jelly babies as the binding material for the spaghetti strands instead.
- Will it matter if you build your tower on a cold or hot day?
Forces, Friction & Movement
Years K to 6
Maximum 30 students
School workshop
60 or 90 minutes
Online Class Available
Bridge Building 101
Years 3 to 6
Maximum 30 students
Workshop (NSW only)
60 or 90 minutes
Working Mathematically
Years 3 to 6
Maximum 30 students
School workshop (NSW only)
90 minutes or Full Day
Online Class Available
STEM Full Day Accelerator - Primary
Designed from real classroom experiences, this modular day helps you create consistently effective science learning that directly address the new curriculum with easily accessible and cost-effective materials.
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