This challenge was to build the tallest tower they could with dry spaghetti, yarn, and tape. I let them build them in these bins because I needed to be able to move the projects around the room more easily. The students were split up into teams (I always draw popsicle sticks that have their names written on them to make it random) and they followed the Engineering Design Process to come up with their creation. Some groups decided that the spaghetti was going to break anyway, so they might as well break it themselves and put it together into clumps to make it more sturdy. That was a cool idea I had never thought to try. Other groups tried to work with the spaghetti to get it to arch. Others just ended up with a tape-y creation as they try to mend broken spaghetti. Lots of teams had conflicts arise that needed to be addressed. I was impressed with how well they used their SEL (Social Emotional Learning) skills when they did this. They used statements like "I feel ___________ when you _____________." It is exciting to see these skills work in real time with real conflicts. I'm so proud of our 3rd graders!!!
Here is a picture of one of their presentations:
Here are some of their finished projects:
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