• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Menu
  • Science Experiments For Kids
  • Science Fair Projects
  • Science Facts
  • Science Questions
  • About
    • Emma Vanstone
    • About Science Sparks
Science Experiments for Kids
Menu
  • STEM Challenges
    • STEM Challenges
    • FREE STEM Challenge Templates
  • Early Years Science
    • Preschool Science
    • Sensory and Messy Play
    • Understanding of the World
    • Pirate Science Experiments
  • Primary Science
    • Baking Soda Experiments
    • Candy Experiments
    • Biology
    • Climate Change for Kids
    • Coding for Kids
    • Chemistry
    • Electricity for Kids
    • Magic Science Experiments
    • Harry Potter Experiments
    • Human Body Science
    • Air Pressure Experiments
    • Life Cycles
    • LEGO Science Experiments
    • Kitchen Science
    • Famous Scientists
    • Forces and Motion
    • Science Sparks Snippets
    • Key Stage 1 Science
      • Animals
      • Everyday Materials
      • Plants
      • Coding Activities
      • Humans and Health
      • Fine Motor skills
      • Science and Literacy
    • Key Stage 2 Science
      • Animals, Including Humans
      • Electricity
      • Light
      • Plants
      • Materials and their Properties
  • Holiday Science
    • Christmas Science
    • Halloween Science
    • Easter Science
  • Storybook Themed Science Experiments
  • Wonderful Women in STEM
  • FREE Science Resources
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • FREE Experiments
  • Science for Kids
    • Kitchen Science
    • Climate Change
    • Egg Experiments
    • Fairy Tale Science
    • Edible Science
    • Human Health
    • Chemistry
    • Inspirational Women
    • Forces and Motion
  • Science Fair Projects
  • STEM Challenges
  • Science Sparks Books
  • Contact Science Sparks
  • Science Resources for Home and School

×
Home » Primary Science » Key Stage 1 Science » Marshmallow Spaghetti Towers – Engineering Challenge

Marshmallow Spaghetti Towers – Engineering Challenge

Modified: Feb 21, 2025 · Published: Mar 15, 2012 by Emma Vanstone · This post may contain affiliate links · 21 Comments

When I brought out the spaghetti and marshmallows, I think my children thought we were having some kind of weird and wonderful dinner, not building structures.

This is a great STEM activity for children of most ages, as you can tailor it to their understanding. I let my 2-year-old build whatever she wanted, and she had a great time working out how to put the spaghetti in the right places. With my 4-year-old, we were a bit more structured and tried to build a tower.

Older children can think carefully about which shapes are strong shapes and will support their structure the best.

Marshmallow and spaghetti tower
Marshmallow Tower

How to build a marshmallow tower

You’ll need

Spaghetti ( uncooked! )

Marshmallows

Instructions

Snap the spaghetti into smaller pieces.

Push the ends of the spaghetti into the marshmallows to build different shapes for your tower.

We started with a cube, but when we put weight (Pooh bear in our case) on it, it started to lean very precariously to the right, and one of the vertical spaghetti pieces snapped. We then discussed what we would do to make it stronger. We decided to add some diagonal pieces, which seemed to do the trick.

Marshmallow and spaghetti tower for an engineering challenge

We thought it would be fun to try lots of different shapes to see if we could break them. Straight lines and marshmallow corners tend to lead to triangles, but we had a lot of fun with other shapes, too.

spaghetti and marshmallow structure

Extension task

Make it a game. Challenge friends or family to see who can build the tallest tower!

Try miniature and then giant marshmallows. Which are easiest to build with?

Stable structure secrets

Triangles are great for making a stable structure.

Consider where the centre of gravity is in your tower. A wide base helps stability, giving a centre of gravity low down and central.

More engineering challenges

Discover why domes are so strong with this eggshell bridge!

Build a famous monument with newspaper!

Build bridges with different shaped paper and cardboard to investigate which is the strongest!

Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls has a fantastic LEGO bridge building challenge you might like too!

Marshmallow and spaghetti tower for a STEM Challenge

Last Updated on February 21, 2025 by Emma Vanstone

More Key Stage 1 Science

  • Fybogel slime
    Easy ideas for British Science Week
  • mini DIY greenhouse made from a plastic bottle
    Easy DIY Mini Greenhouses
  • ideas for learning with LEGO
    40 Easy Science Experiments Using LEGO®
  • paper towel flag activity
    Kitchen Towel Flags

Safety Notice

Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kelly

    March 15, 2012 at 8:18 am

    My son would also think spaghetti and marshmellows would make a great dinner!

    Reply
  2. Laura @ You, me & the mindee's

    March 15, 2012 at 9:32 am

    Looks great fun, my 2yo would love this. Will definitely be trying it out x

    Reply
  3. Actually Mummy...

    March 15, 2012 at 9:43 am

    GG and her class did this not long ago. The marshmallows looked a bit grubby by the time they were finished, and gradually the structures were missing bits! I hate to think what got consumed in the end!

    Reply
  4. maryanne @ mama smiles

    March 15, 2012 at 10:36 am

    My kids love doing this, although we’ve always used toothpicks instead of pasta. Love the extra challenge pasta adds!

    Reply
  5. sunnymama

    March 15, 2012 at 11:01 am

    This looks fun! 🙂

    Reply
  6. Susan Case

    March 15, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    Wonderful idea on the marshmallows!

    Reply
    • ScienceSparks

      March 16, 2012 at 2:38 pm

      Thank you

      Reply
  7. Shiloh

    March 15, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    What a fun experiment! Were the marshmallows fresh? How many did you guys eat in the process? That would be my biggest problem.:)

    Reply
    • ScienceSparks

      March 16, 2012 at 2:38 pm

      they were fresh, but older might work better? We ate uhm…several 🙂

      Reply
  8. @BlueBearWood

    March 15, 2012 at 8:12 pm

    Great fun. I’d have to buy 4 times the amount. 1 to build and 3 for the girls to eat!!

    Reply
    • ScienceSparks

      March 16, 2012 at 2:38 pm

      ha ha, we did go through a lot!

      Reply
  9. RockerMom

    March 16, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    We did this a few weeks ago. We used mini marshmallows and toothpicks. The large marshmallows seem like they’d work better and the variations in possible lengths of the spaghetti would lead to more possibilities. Thanks for sharing!!

    Reply
  10. Angela

    March 16, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    My kindergarten did this a few weeks ago with toothpicks and marshmallows. The structure she made was so amazing! And she had a great time doing it too. I was delighted to receive a full explanation of how the structure she made works and how she added supports in different places to make it strong!

    Reply
  11. Jamie H

    March 17, 2012 at 4:34 pm

    Looks like fun! Knowing my girls though, they’d try to eat everything (including the raw spaghetti) before they actually made anything!

    Reply
  12. Ticia

    March 22, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    We did this before with toothpicks, but the extra challenge of pasta is kind of intriguing.

    Thanks for linking to Science Sunday!

    Reply
  13. Carrie

    March 23, 2012 at 1:09 am

    Oh, how fun!! Reminds me of my days teaching geometry. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Welcome!

Imagine a world where science education is accessible to everyone and is all about hands-on, exciting discoveries. That’s the world I want to create.

More about me

Around the World in 50 Experiments

50 experiments about countries of the world

Footer

↑ back to top

Science Sparks - FREE science experiments for kids

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © 2025 Science Sparks - Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd