Sixth Grade Experience Returns to IDEA Space
Sixth graders met at IDEA Space this week to take on a challenge involving spaghetti, marshmallows, problem-solving and design thinking.
This activity was part of Sixth Grade Experience, a series of interdisciplinary activities designed to help students build connections with classmates and teachers and explore different academic subjects as they transition to middle school. Throughout the year, sixth graders will participate in activities that span different disciplines and encourage teamwork and problem-solving.
This week, sixth graders practiced their design thinking skills with the Spaghetti Tower Marshmallow Challenge. After dividing into small teams, each group received spaghetti, tape and string and set out to build the tallest possible tower that could support a marshmallow within an 18 minute time limit. The activity introduced students to the design process of thinking, doing, prototyping and iterating. They tested their ideas, figuring out what worked and what needed to change in order to successfully complete the challenge.
Iteration is one of the most important parts of design thinking and problem-solving: when an idea doesn't work as expected, it provides an opportunity to revise and try again. By repeating the process and applying what they learned from earlier attempts, students were able to improve their strategy and come up with creative solutions.
