STEM Clusters: Take Three

What do 5 years olds and CEOs have in common? In some cases, both have participated in the Marshmallow challenge!  This week in the STEM cluster How High, How Far, How Fast our 5 and 6 year old students were challenged to build the tallest structure possible using 10 pieces of spaghetti, one foot of masking tape, one foot of string and one marshmallow – the marshmallow, of course, had to remain sturdily on the top!

Students were focused, engaged, curious, frustrated, angry, and hopeful as they worked together to strategize and problem solve. Working together and collaborating was quite a challenge. As to be expected some students quietly gave their suggestions, “That is not possible; it will be too wobbly, let’s try this,” whereas, in another group, I heard a young fellow demand almost in tears, “Hold this; hold this here; do it now, and don’t let go!”

As I noted in an earlier post on STEM Clusters with the older students, what was  most difficult for them was collaborating together, and accepting or acting on the ideas of their classmates. Although frustrated, the older kids were more accepting of each other ideas and were clearly building upon each other’s knowledge in order to yield a unified result. With the little ones, those who were able to work together followed a more step-by-step approach. “I will do this; now you try your idea.” 

In one case, it was clear after the first 10 minutes that a particular youngster was simply unable to work within a group, so the facilitator gave him his materials and asked him to work through the challenge on his own. He was happy to do so; but when he realized help would be necessary, he very politely asked the little girl next to him to assist. Noticing this change I asked him “what was the problem the first time you tried to work together?” He said, “Well, I am the boy, and I told her what to do and she wouldn’t do it.” I responded, “What does being a boy have to do with it?” He said, “Boys are the ones who tell girls what to do, that is the way things always work.” Now, I know the family of this little boy, and I am more than certain that in his household, responsibilities are shared across genders.  So I thought, wow, our society still has a lot of work to do! First through modeling gender-neutral roles, and then by improving how the media, advertising and entertainment present those gender roles.

A lot happened during those 45 minutes, and most groups were satisfied with their hard work and accomplishments. Here are some of their reflections:

“I was thinking like an engineer; trying to imagine a blue print in my head.”

“I liked when we were working together and did not get mad at each other.”

“It was REALLY hard to get that marshmallow to stay on the top!”

Could it be that our students must learn to collaborate before they can fully experience and practice other challenging skills? In other words is collaboration a necessary step onto a ladder of 21^st century skills? Or are the 4 C’s spokes on wheel of integrated skills?