Building Structures

Building Structures TGIF

A "Tower TGIF" is an exercise in collaborative construction. Organizer provide some creative building materials (e.g., toothpicks and gumdrops or marshmallows and spaghetti) and teams need to design and construct a structure that optimizes for some criteria (e.g., height or, in the bridge variant, distance spanned).

The Announcement

Here's a start on the announcement for an example tower TGIF:

This week at TGIF, team up and try to build the tallest tower using only

marshmallows and uncooked spaghetti. The coveted TGIF trophy will be

awarded to the team that can build the tallest free-standing tower!

Each team will be allotted:

- 30 spaghetti sticks

- 10 marshmallows

- 1 yard of masking tape

To place in the standings, each tower must stand without falling for 5

seconds, and must have one large marshmallow at the tallest point.

Teams are also welcome to attempt the challenge with cooked spaghetti,

though we expect such efforts may be a flop ;)

The Materials

For this TGIF you need to acquire building materials. Uncooked spaghetti, toothpicks, drinking straws, marshmallows, gum drops, etc.

The Setup

As a team TGIF, it's good to have tables spread around so folks can gather to collaborate on their tower. Otherwise, set up is pretty normal!