OPPD’s Marshmallow Challenge encourages innovative thinking among grade schoolers during National Engineers Week

It’s National Engineers Week, a time designed to increase understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers. Omaha Public Power District’s Society of Engineers is celebrating by asking fifth grade students to take part in the utility’s 12^th annual Marshmallow Challenge.

The contest, open to teams of fifth graders throughout our 13-county service territory, encourages students to work together to innovate and problem-solve. The objective is to build the tallest free-standing structure they can within 20 minutes using only the following materials:

• 20 full pieces of spaghetti
• Standard sized spaghetti, not fettuccini or angel hair
• One standard sized marshmallow (approximately 1” by 1.25”)
• No mini or jumbo marshmallows
• Cannot be cut or reduced in size
• One yard (36”) of standard masking tape
• One yard (36”) of string

Structures must be constructed on a table or desktop and able to support the weight of the marshmallow from the provided materials. The tallest structure, by perpendicular distance from the tabletop to the top of the marshmallow, will be declared the winner. The three teams with the tallest structures will win goodie bags for their entire classroom, and an OPPD employee will visit the class to talk about careers in engineering.

The Marshmallow Challenge is part of OPPD’s ongoing commitment to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education. To participate, students must submit a group photo with their structure, along with its height, to the Marshmallow Challenge link on OPPD’s Facebook page. Entries are due by 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 5 and winners will be announced Friday, March 7.

The OPPD Society of Engineers will also be selecting the tower that best represents ingenuity and creative use of the materials, even if it isn’t one of the tallest. This team will also win goodie bags for their classroom. For additional information, visit oppd.com/MarshmallowChallenge.