Spaghetti towers - ExpeRimental #7

Get children thinking and building like engineers by challenging them to build the tallest tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows For more ideas, and to download an info sheet click here: Building towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows is a great way to encourage children to think like engineers. Aoife McLysaght does this simple, easy and cheap science activity at home with her children. By creating structures out of these cheap kitchen materials, Alice and Lorenzo start to think about the properties of objects, the factors that contribute to stability, and the importance of testing things out. A good structure must be stiff and strong, able to take a lot of force before it collapses. Different shapes have different strengths and weaknesses. Experimenting with squares, triangles and other shapes is a great starting point for thinking about the process of building things like houses and bridges. ExpeRimental, brought to you by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, is a series of free short films that make it fun, easy and cheap to do science at home with children aged 4 to 10. Our films give you lots of ideas for kids’ activities that will help you explore the world around you, question and experiment together. We’ll show you how to do the activity and how to make sure adults and children get the most out of it. Why not have a go and then tell us what you think on our Facebook page? The Ri is on Twitter: and Facebook: and Tumblr: Our editorial policy: Subscribe for the latest science videos: