The Marshmallow Challenge 

“Now we have a secret activity, move quietly into the learning street please everyone.” She announced. 

We all pushed through now what seemed like a tiny door it was like shoving through a herd of elephants. we all plopped down onto the carpet, as Mr. Martin took the stage and popped off the cap of a whiteboard marker. The squeaking of the pen against the whiteboard as Mr. Martin started to write, it read... teamwork. 

“Okay everyone what do you think teamwork means?” He declared as people popped up their hands. 

After awhile the whiteboard was filled with ideas about teamwork, he rubbed it all out and started to write something different… leadership, more and more people answered as more and more he wrote them until yet again the whiteboard was filled with ideas about leadership. 

“Head into Room 7 please,” Ms. Dixon stated as the crowd moved into Room 7 and sat down quietly. The projector lit up the whiteboard with a powerpoint, Ms. Dixon read along as the powerpoint flipped pages. She said “Now we will be doing the activity, you will get 20 strands of raw spaghetti, 1 marshmallow, 1 metre of string and 1 metre of tape and a pair of scissors.” 

Why would we be needing this I thought to myself as she kept on talking. “You will form into groups and try to build the tallest freestanding tower out of that equipment, you will be timed with 15 minutes now make your teams.” She implied as we stood up and formed our groups. “READY SET GO!” Miss Kinnaird roared, as my group started sharing ideas of what to do. My leader decided to make a teepee out of the spaghetti so we did but tried and failed as it collapsed. We kept on trying that same idea as we had no other better ideas and the clock was ticking. We finally got the teepee to stand but the marshmallow was too heavy to stick onto it. 

Before we knew it the time had gone and we were sitting back in the learning street. Ms. Dixon handed us all a sheet to reflect on the activity, we all contributed ideas and finished most of the sheet. Ms. Dixon then told us to tidy up and before we knew it we were back in our classes ready for morning tea.

By Ayesha Downes.