Can you build a Pringles ring?
To kick off the school year, students were presented with a challenge: Use one can of Pringles to build a freestanding ring. Not only were students tasked with resisting the urge to eat this ultimate snack food but they actually had to use them as a building material.
There were quite a few broken chips and fallen rings but, students continued to work together to try to conquer this challenge. It was interesting to see which students took on a leadership role in their group, hidden skills emerging with a different type of task. In the end, after a lot of collaboration, perseverance and flexible thinking - one group was successful!
While this is an engineering challenge, it is also a test of grit. The real challenge of this task was to not give up. Often, when faced with something that is not easily accomplished, students can become discouraged and give up. It gave me a chance to gauge students' willingness to stick with a difficult task and discover how to motivate students to keep trying.
With more time, I know several other groups would have built it as well. Do you think you can build a Pringles ring?
