This always happens to me. Life gets a hold of me and I haven't blogged in forever.
Well, part of my [school] resolution this year is to get blogging, so here I am!
I love having my students take part in the Marshmallow Challenge twice a year: once at the beginning of the year in August and a second time in January. The second time around, I like to see how students respond to the challenge and what they might have learned from their mistakes last time. We talked about which base would be more stable, a triangular base or a quadrilateral base. (It's interesting to see which two structures were still standing after coming back from specials.)
Although the students participate in the Marshmallow Challenge to build the tallest freestanding structure, I have students discuss the process of collaboration and teamwork more so than their product. After 18 minutes of designing, building, redesigning, and rebuilding, students took a seat and we began the discussion of how we could collaborate better in Room 208.
Here are some of the bullet points we took away from our activity:
- communicate [listen to EVERYONE'S ideas]
- agree w/ your teammates BEFORE you do something
- it's okay to follow someone else's plan EVEN IF it's not your first choice
- work TOGETHER
- watch your BODY language
- let people TRY things out
We have learned so much about collaboration throughout the first half of our year, but we have resolved as a whole class to get better at it!
My wonderful fifth grade team and I were very purposeful in the way we started off the year. We wanted to make sure that we explored the essential questions, "What makes a community?" and "What does the way I show respect say about me?" These are really key questions that we want fifth graders to think deeply about. So, we began the year with some community building activities that would really showcase how students will work collaboratively in our classrooms. And on top of learning about each other and teamwork, Robinson has a theme this year: GRIT. And what is grit? Well, grit is persevering through difficult tasks for a longer period of time. (If you have six minutes, watch Angela Lee Duckworth express the key characteristic that leads to success in her TEDTalk.) And our students are going to be learning to be "gritty" this year as we may present challenging content and material that they may first fail at! But that's okay! Because we have grit and we are going to persevere in order to be successful in the future.
So, have you heard about the Saving Sam and the Marshmallow Challenge activities?
Saving Sam was an activity that involved a gummy worm, a gummy lifesaver, a plastic cup, and two paperclips. A worm named Sam (gummy worm) had flipped its boat (cup) over and was trapped on top of the boat while his or her (well, worms are hermaphrodites) life saver (gummy lifesaver) was stuck underneath the boat. The goal of the students, in pairs, was to save Sam only using the provided paperclips. No hands, Ma!
Wow, did I see GRRRRRIT! At my first walk-around, I wasn't sure if anyone would be able to save Sam. They weren't sure how to save him/her and I heard a lot of questions like, "Are you sure this is possible?" "Are you sure I can't use my hands?" And then, miraculous things began to happen: partnerships were working together! Take a look!
Now, I had planned on debriefing about the teamwork and collaboration, but this activity led me to talk about GRIT. Why? Well, because I had a couple groups finish within the first five minutes of the activity. Then some of the other groups began trickling past the finish line. BUT I had three pairs still working even while we were debriefing the activity. And guess what? They were seriously frustrated...but they didn't give up! They kept on working because they knew that other groups had completed the task and they knew that it was doable! Wow, what grit!
I first learned about the Marshmallow Challenge from my administration at my last school. They brought in this exercise from TED (talks on riveting ideas: technology, entertainment, and design) to begin the conversation of collaboration, communication, the different roles that different people have on a team amongst the adults. This was such an eye-opening activity that I thought this would be an awesome way for students to be involved in that same conversations, hopefully preparing them for the teamwork and collaboration that would come throughout the year.
The materials that each team of four received were: 20 spaghetti sticks, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. Each team only had 18 minutes to build the tallest freestanding structure with a few simple rules: the entire marshmallow must be on top of the structure, the structure can be made up of as many or as few of the materials provided, the spaghetti sticks, string, and tape can be broken/cut, and the structure had to be freestanding at the end of the 18 minutes.
Some began by drawing out a plan on paper. Other groups just began to build. Some groups naturally divvied up the roles, which included cutting the tape, providing/breaking spaghetti sticks, and etc... I would like to tell you that all groups succeeded in building a freestanding structure, but...only one group had succeeded. But I would not ask them to build me a building in the near future: their structure collapsed within a minute after being measured and declared the sole winner! Yikes!
VIDEO UPDATE:
We had to debrief, of course! We talked about the positives, things that went well. And I would agree with them that they were all engaged, working together, and communicating... But this activity, I heard and saw more disagreements break out and/or miscommunication in the groups. AHA! Finally a moment of failure for my kiddos to learn from! So when we debriefed the activity, we all agreed that we need to learn not only to communicate, but to communicate WELL.
This year is going to be full of so many challenges that I know at first, they may fail at. But with the lessons of grit we're learning and the support of many, we will succeed. Even if it takes five minutes or five months or five years. We will be at the finish line!
First seen on TED (talks on riveting ideas: technology, entertainment, and design), my administration from my last school brought in this wonderful team building exercise called, "The Marshmallow Challenge." It was such a great way to begin the conversation of collaboration, communication, different roles that different people have, and so forth that I thought, "This is such a great way for students to be involved in this conversation that prepares them for teamwork and collaboration!"
The materials that each team of four received were: 20 spaghetti sticks, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. Each team only had 18 minutes to build the tallest freestanding structure with a few simple rules: the entire marshmallow must be on top of the structure, the structure can be made up of as many or as few of the materials provided, the spaghetti sticks, string, and tape can be broken/cut, and the structure had to be freestanding at the end of the 18 minutes.
Was I really looking for the tallest freestanding structure? Of course not. I actually think that most teams both times (I did it at the beginning of the year in August and then once again in January) were unable to have a structure remain standing at the end of time. The main question I had in mind for discussion was, "How do we ensure quality collaboration takes place to accomplish our goals as a team?" When students were asked this, most of them were able to share out the key points I wanted to emphasize!
I can't remember which team won and what the measurements of their structure, but if you click on the link above to watch the video, you'll find a surprising group that always beats the average! What group do you think would do well in a challenge like this? How would you do with a group of friends? Coworkers? What other topics of conversation would you suggest I bring up next time?
