Tower of Power
2019 Results: Click here to see the results of the 2019 Middle School Competition!
Celebrate National Engineers Week with Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
A Tower of Power in a Half Hour
A Middle School National Engineering Week Challenge
Join Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering in celebrating National Engineers Week (February 17-23, 2019) by building a tower from spaghetti and marshmallows. The top three middle school teams that build the tallest freestanding tower wins and will be invited to recreate their winning towers at the JHU Tower of Power event on February 19, 2019!
Participate in this year’s event by joining our mailing list.
Specifics:
- Towers are to be built by a team of students (3 students max) using only one (1) 1 pound box of spaghetti and 2 bags of large marshmallows (30/bag).
- The construction time limit is a half hour.
- Towers must be freestanding.
- Multiple teams may compete within each school, but each middle school may submit only one winning entry to JHU. An entry consists of two items:
- A digital photograph of the team and its tower
- A teacher-verified height (in cm)
- The top 5 winning teams across all schools will be invited to JHU’s Tower of Power competition to build their towers again and compete with undergraduate students, alumni, and faculty teams (optional).
Prizes:
- Each middle school entry will receive a certificate signed by the Assistant Dean for Engineering Educational Outreach.
- The winning entries will receive prizes (to be determined) and be recognized on the JHU Center for Educational Outreach website.
Hints: Triangles are rigid. Structures using triangles tend to be strong. Note all the triangular trusses in the picture. Long lengths of spaghetti will bend. It’s probably better to have several short sections rather than one long section.
Experiment! Design! Build!
If you intend to participate, have questions, or need to submit photo consent forms, contact Ruby Holder at STEMOutreach@jhu.edu or call 410-516-4479.
2019 Tower of Power Information Sheet.
Hub article: Engineers Week 2018 Homewood Campus Competition
