Reflect on the in-class marshmallow tower building exercise. Use the comments to respond!
20 thoughts on “8/30 Reflection”
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Learning Places, F2017
The impact of the Brooklyn Bridge [Aptekar-Berger]
Today, in groups of 4, we did the marshmallow challenge! For me, this was slightly challenging in terms of building an efficient, tall yet stable structure. I had two architecture majors in my group and I do feel that this gave us an advantage since they were able to come up with a clever design for our spaghetti structure. On the other hand, I feel that time went by really fast and since we didn’t use time efficiently when planning, we weren’t able to build a very tall structure. I am proud of the fact that we all worked together and were able to at least have a 14 inch stable structure, although not that tall, it did stay standing. I really enjoyed this challenge and I hope we do more of this. This helped us get to know our fellow classmates better and also helped us grow in group work!
The marshmallow tower building exercise was a great way to get a introduction to this class. It allowed us to work as a group to figure out how we can successfully construct a tall standing tower. I knew that we had to focus on the foundation if we wanted it to stand, yet my group members wanted to focus on how tall we could make the tower. Half of the time we were divided not working as a team what so ever, but during the last few minutes we came together. This exercise taught me that when building, I should think about how I can execute it, plan it, then build it. While building my tower, I should build it, then test to see if it will stand. My group and I did the complete opposite of this. Even though we lost it was a fun activity.
In the in-class marshmallow tower building exercise, I’ve learned it was best to work within the team to learn from each others ideas. Marshmallow tower building exercise becomes really frustated when the tower can’t stand on its own and falls. One of the best parts is when all of us bring our ideas together and build the tower.marshmallow tower building exercise is defintely a challenge I think next time I will do much better.
Today in class we participated in the marshmallow challenge. It was a good way of getting to know one another by seeing how one thinks and can come up with a solution. It did teach me that there really is never one way of doing something because everyone takes a different approach. However the time did go fast, but it was due to over analyzing things and when we finally got to build it took too long and we discovered problems as we went, instead of trying another technique we just tried to make what we had work. That’s what cost us the most time instead of deconstruct and rebuild it was more of get it to work. It was a fun exercise and showed a few characteristics of our group mates which was very helpful in getting to know them.
The marshmallow tower building exercise was a new and great way to start off the class. This activity demonstrated the many different personality types, creativity and thought process of the students involved. Within my group there were four students, two students majoring in architectural technology, one majoring in nursing and the other in mechanical engineering. I had noticed that myself and the other teammate from the aech department took initiative and started trying and attempting different methods until we came to one that might work, the mechanical engineering student took more of an analytical approach where he sat and observed before he began helping and the nursing student helped with whatever was asked of him. This put all of our personalities on display. It is said a team with a variety of people works well when it comes to this and even though our tower didn’t stand we all still came together in the end putting each of our individual skills and knowledge to the test. It was a great way to introduce ourselves and gave a creative way to make a first impression.
Today was a great first day of class. We did a team building activity In which we worked together to build a tower as tall as we possibly could using a mmarshmallow, 20 strips of dry noodles, a string and limited supply of tape. We had a limited amount of time and our marshmallow had to be on top of our structure. Naturally every table seemed to started off the same since we had no idea how to get this done. We all used a building system supported by at least 3 points for a base and built up from there. I knew that with the limited supply of noodles, tape and more importantly knowledge of how to build with noodles wr could not make something so fragile stand taller than a foot but that didn’t stop us from trying. We decided to start with a pyramid like base because we wanted a strong support system for a tall tower. The only problem was we used 1 noodle for each edge of this pyramid. It may have stood strong on its own but as we began to funnel noodles through its peak we started to notice that the base was too fragile to support its spire. Things only got worse when we tried to put the marshmellow on top. We knew the weight of the marshmellow would make things a lot worse but we couldn’t predict by how much. When our tower began to lean I started to look around the room to see if anyone else s tower was matching the our height. Two teams had beat us by far but they had yet to put the marshmellow on top and so I realized that the goal of having the largest tower could be reached at any height so long as everyone else’s tower continued to fail when then put the marshmallow on top. I then snapped the spire of our tower in half and placed the marshmallow at a shorter level. At the end of the challenge our tower was the only one standing and to top it off we were able to make the tower stand 14″ tall. Just a bit over a foot.
When we first started the Marshmallow Tower activity, I wondered about the purpose of the exercise. However, the idea of making a structure with spaghetti strands strong enough to withstand the weight of a marshmallow kept my interest. The idea of constructing and deconstructing doesn’t often come to mind especially when time is an issue. However with more time I believe the result would have been the same: a whole lot of fallen towers. I think the lesson is still plan but readjust along the way. In addition, it was a very fun exercise for us to get to know one another without the discomfort of first encounters.
The marshmallow challenge was an interesting way to break the ice between new students on the first day. My team consisted of one nursing student, one mechanical engineering student and two architectural technology students including myself. The challenge was both fun and difficult. The fun part included working with my fellow classmates to find the best solution to complete the challenge however with only 18 minutes to plan and execute the design it became extremely difficult. We each had different ways of approaching the subject. The engineering student had an analytical approach and spent most of his time analyzing the situation, my fellow architectural technology student and I took a more hands-on approach and the nursing student was willing to follow our lead & did his best to assist us. The interview that we conducted with each other before the exercise was very helpful in making us more comfortable with each other. Overall, even though we lost the challenge, it was a successful way for us to get comfortable with our fellow classmates.
The Marshmallow Challenge was a interesting and fun activity. The exercise has helped communicate and work together with my group, getting the opportunity to meet my classmates. The mental and physical aspects that are needed to solve and build the Marshmallow Challenge throughout the time limit of eighteen minutes, tests your ability to be able to think of different ways to accomplish creating the tallest tower with only three objects that include: twenty noodles, one yarn, one tape and one marshmallow that has to go on top of the tower. Thoughtout the activity, I was trying to think of possible ways to create a tower with the noodles and tape while also working on the tower trying to work fast. In the end, my group and I were unable to make our tower stand up straight but the message behind the activity has helped me understand the concept and also helped build my confidence when it comes to working in a group, creating ideas and contributing to my group.
The marshmallow challenge was a fun and creative way to get students to interact with each other. My table was trying very hard to come up with good ideas to make the spaghetti stand on it’s own. I realized that every building starts off with a solid foundation and you need to plan ahead in order to create a successful structure. I found it interesting how kindergarten students do better than college students, I guess it’s because children have a more fun vibe towards activities like this while students like us have more of a competitive vibe. If we could do this in class again I would definitely take it more seriously. This activity made a lasting impression on me, this class is going to be fun.
On Monday, August 28th, I learned a fun new exercise called the marshmallow challenge. After the brief overview of the class, the exercise was a great way to break the ice! Although I thought the marshmallow challenge was just stuffing a whole bunch of marshmallows in your mouth until they couldn’t fit anymore, i was totally wrong. For the marshmallow challenge, we used 20 pieces of pasta, tape, string, and 1 marshmallow. The group that could build the tallest tower with those supplies within 18 minutes won. While it was fun, no one succeeded in making the tower stand. I also look forward to going on the upcoming field trips & exploring the city.
Today, in-class we had the opportunity to do the marshmallow tower building challenge, which was a great way to start off the class on the first day. This activity helped to get us acquainted with the class better and display the different types of creativity and ideas students have. The exercise was a bit frustrating with the little time we had and trying to have the tower stand with the marshmallow on top. But it was still fun at the same time and taught us to try prototyping different ways to see the best possible outcome that will work instead of one design of the tower, as well as helping us grow in teams together.
The Marshmallow tower building exercise was a very creative way to have students start to get to know each other as individuals and see how different the thought and understanding process is for each and every single student. Focusing on the challenge of having to develop a large free standing structure with such simple materials, in my particular group we choose to stick to the first plan that came to mind at that particular moment due to the limited time that we had to develop the tower. This allowed me to learn that sticking to one or the first plan that comes to mind does not always give the best results. Rather, it is best to explore quick and different possibilities to building the tower although there is a time frame. Not exploring different possibilities of building, I believe allowed the time to run out faster for my group, but helped me understand that for a second attempt at the marshmallow building exercise a few quick trial and errors is the best way to get better results. Overall I enjoyed the challenge because it gave every student in the class the opportunity to show their personality, as well as to begin to interact with new people.
The marshmallow tower challenge was a great way to start interacting with each other in the class room. It was certainly a challenge to build the tower within our groups, the main goal of getting it to stand up was pretty difficult. it was something that we never did before. So therefore it was tedious for most of constructing the foundation of the marshmallow, but that didn’t stop us from brainstorming more ideas on how to get it to stay up. The main reason why I think we failed the challenge is because we didn’t plan it out before we started we just went with the flow, started taping and tying spaghetti together. Before you could realize time was up and we didn’t have much. Overall it was a good class, great way to challenge us and certainly looking forward to trying it again. TEAMWORK is key.
Today in class we did the marshmallow challenge. It was my first time doing it and i had so much fun creating a marshmallow tower with my partners. It was four of us creating the tower. For all of us it was a new challenge. This exercise is used to teach and develop us in the attributes of collaboration, innovation and creativity. The Marshmallow Challenge reminds us that in order for a project to be a success, we need to identify the assumptions we are making in the project and test these early on and often. We tried to make out tower as tall as possible but unfortunately our tower collapsed. Later, our professor gave an explanation of how to be successful in this challenge.
The marshmallow exercise in the class was a great team work experience for me. Even though we didn’t know each other before, we had a very good time to work with this exercise together.And at the end of this class, I got some new friends. The second thing I learned from this exercise was that, once you have a short period to produce your work, just go for it without hesitation. If you fail once, try it again. You will get it better after you try it again and again. And that is how we improve ourselves.
In class we did the marshmallow challenge in groups of 4. We had to work together to build a tall self standing infrastructure that would hold a marshmallow. This exercise demonstrated the different personality types and thinking process of the students involved. The exercise was a great way to introduce ourselves and show our creative side.
The marshmellow challenge was very interesting and fun to play. I’ve heard about the challenge before but I have never actually participated in doing it. I thought it’d be pretty easy but the challenge was actually much harder than I thought. My team’s tower was quite high however we couldn’t get it to stand by itself at the end, so we lost the game. From this game I learned that team work and not over anaylizing things are very important in order to be succesfull. The next time we play the activity again, i think we will focus more on building a strong base first before trying to make the tower higher.
The result Marshmallow Tower was impressive. We were only given for 18 mins and limited materials and rules for building a tallest spaghetti tower that holds a whole piece of marshmallow. As we started the challenge, I’ve noticed that everyone has different ideas, we need a “leader”, as we proceeded, we encountered problems which needs good communication and execution. We failed the challenge at the point as we failed to come out a good solution of this stage. The Marshmallow Tower challenge is a good way to test a team work. A great team need creativity, communication, execution and direction.
[Manny’s comment] it was a fun first day of class, the interviews gave us an opportunity to meet and learn a bit about each other. the marshmallow challenge took that a step further because it was a group activity which involved everyone working together towards the same goal so we had to communicate with each other and share ideas about how to complete the assignment which proved useful in many ways. we became better acquainted with one another, we learned from each other because during the assignment, the two architectural students in my group wasted no time formulating a plan and building the structure while myself and the other student in my group still considered how to best approach the task, but they carried us along with explanations and we assisted where we could and the time limit made the task a bit of a challenge but if not i am confident we would have made a very solid structure.