Pasta Castle CHALLENGE

Challenge Closed
Challenge Details

YOUR CHALLENGE IS:

MAKE A PASTA CASTLE USING PASTA, MARSHMALLOWS, AND/OR GLUE

Challenge Closed





Make a pasta castle using pasta, marshmallows, and/or glue. Any type of pasta or marshmallows are allowed. Submit photos of your castle with a short description of your design and any special features such as bridges, arches, towers, or anything fancy. Remember NO FACES in your photos and NO NAMES in your text or photo. Take your awesomeness to new heights ... and good luck!
 
 

HOW TO ENTER

Instructions for Students and Teachers

WHO CAN ENTER

K-12 Students in US public, private, and home schools (including U.S. territories & possessions)


Grades K-2
Grades 3-5
Grades 6-8
Grades 9-12

HOW TO ENTER

Please review the Challenge Rules and Design Guidelines prior to creating your entry.

Challenge Rules Design Guidelines

TEACHERS
Sign up to register your class and manage entries. We now support Google Classroom too!

STUDENTS
Sign up on your own, or use a code to participate with your class.

STUDENT USING GOOGLE CLASSROOM?
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STUDENT & TEACHER SIGN UP
 

Dive Into The Challenge

Lesson Plan Details and Challenge Tips!

1. Links & Lessons

 

2. Brainstorm & Design

 
Links & Lessons
Brainstorm & Design
Links & Lessons
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Links & Lessons
Brainstorm & Design

LEARN ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

Here are some science concepts and links to get your started with the challenge.

Videos

Brainstorm & Design

Explore the properties of spaghetti and marshmallows and design your ultimate pasta castle.
Brainstorming Idea
SPAGHETTI PROPERTIES

What properties does pasta have that could be useful in your build? What makes it buckle, flex or snap? If you hold the spaghetti vertical, how does it deal with a load above it? If you place it horizontal, how does it deal with a load above it? How can you make it stronger? 

 

 

Brainstorming Idea
MARSHMALLOW PROPERTIES

What properties do marshmallows have that could be useful in your build? Will you use your  marshmallows as structural nodes? Do you want to split them? Mush them? Stretch them?

 

 

 

 

Brainstorming Idea
BRIDGES, ARCHES, TOWERS

What structural elements will define your structure? Will you have a grand entrance, a bridge connecting two areas, or an impressively tall tower?

 

 

 

 

 

Brainstorming Idea
MOVEMENT

How can movement make your castle even better? Will the movement be functional or just for fun? 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Tools

Build & Iterate

FOR THE CLASSROOM

Group Size

Split into 8 teams

Approach

Assign each team a video lesson and have them present what they learned

Material

None

Educator tools

 
 
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LAUNCHING THE INNOVATORS OF TOMORROW

Future Engineers hosts online contests and challenges for K-12 students, including the recent Mars 2020 "Name the Rover" contest. This challenge platform was developed with support from the US Department of Education and all challenges are free for student/classroom participation.