Pretzel & Marshmallow Structure

Introduce your kids to "edible engineering," using pretzels and marshmallows to build two and even three dimensional structures. Creative learning has never tasted so good!

Fun Facts:

• National Pretzel Day is celebrated each year on ApriI 26.
• Hard pretzels were invented in the late 1600s, when a snoozing apprentice in a Pennsylvania bakery accidentally over-baked his pretzels, creating crunchy, seemingly inedible, knots. His job was spared when the master baker, attempting to criticize, took an angry bite out of one, and loved it.
• S'mores, a delicious marshmallow treat, first appeared with a recipe in a 1927 handbook called Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.
• Ligonier, Indiana is the marshmallow capital of the world.
• Marshmallows expand in a vacuum because of the small air bubbles in them.

Objective:

• Students will use pretzels and marshmallows to build different structures.

Materials:

• Marshmallows
• Pretzel sticks

Procedure:

• Gather materials.
• Explore how the pretzels and marshmallows link together by gently pushing one end of the pretzel stick into a marshmallow.
• Try building a flat, two-dimension shape, like a triangle or a square.
• Then try tackling a three-dimensional structure, like a triangular prism or a cube.
• Experiment with other shapes or structures.

Extensions:

• Here is a challenge: Using 20 marshmallows and 30 pretzel sticks, build the tallest tower that you can.
• When you are finished, measure how tall your tower is.

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