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2/2 2022 ~Marshmallow Chalenge~

    Today was quite different than our usual class. Tables were set up and we sat in groups of 4, with strange materials. There were 20 raw spaghettis, 1 yard of tape and string, and most mportantly a marshmallow. Having no clue of what was going on, Mr.Paterson assigned us a challenge, which was the Marshmallow challenge. Our mission was to build some sort of tower so that the marshmallow would be held on top. our group worked pretty well, in the sense that we started building the tower as soon as the 18 minutes timer went on. We started working on the base of the tower, so that the thin spaghetti strips would support the levels on top. I personally thought that the base woud be stable if we made it a square, but after a quick talk we realised that we should use the spaghetti strips wisely, as well as the tape. Cautiously taping the strips together, we found that the easiest way to make a tall, and strong tower was to tape more paghetthis to the bottom area, to strengthen the base. In the end, our group was able to build a tower around 50 cm which is the average. 

    After watching the TED talk of Peter Skillman on the marshmallow design challenge, i regretted a lot of things. Peters thoughts were: 1. You learn by doing. 2. Work in parallel. 3. On being first to market. 4. ultiple iteraions and 5. All prjects have resource constraints. Asking for more materials, searching the internet and other "cheating" options did not cross my mind, yet they were never in the rule that Mr.Paterson mentioned at the beginning. So why do people unconsciously create their own sets of rules? I realised how cautious we have become compared to us when we were in kindergarden/young age. It made sense that children do better in the marshmallow challenge, than business school students. This experience made me realise how some things need the simplistic view, rather than being concerned of the outcome. 

notes:

 marshmallow challenge

with prizes, they failed (trying too hard, need to have some basis in reality)

18 mins, 20 pasta, 1 yard of tape and string 

leadership, teamwork 

could use more mashmallows 



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