Recently, I saw a kit for a Peep Cookie Coop and it made think that this could be a great STEM challenge for students in the spring of the year, similar to the gingerbread houses many do in the winter. The “Marshmallow Peep Coop: STEM Design Challenge” is a great opportunity to test your students’ creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills while they have fun designing and implementing STEM concepts. Continue reading to learn more!

Set

• Set the stage for this challenge ahead of time so students know the time limits involved and the criteria judges will be evaluating them on.
• Decide on the food supplies you will provide for this challenge based on your budget. At minimum, you should provide the marshmallow peeps, graham crackers, frosting, and some fun food items such as coconut, food coloring, chocolate chips and jelly beans.
• Decide who your panel of judges will be and send invitations ahead of time.
• Note: This challenge is designed for a 43 minute class period. However, you can structure this to fit your class period time frame and schedule.
• Create teams of 3-4 students if possible. Read the initial scenario to the students and let the challenge begin!

Materials

• Blank Paper & Colored Pencils
• Food Supplies
• Prizes (Marshmallow Peeps–a box for each winning team member) (affiliate link)
• Cutting Board Base (optional)

Activities

• Share food items that students will be able to work with and stress that they may only be used for building the structure.
• When directed, students will have 15 minutes to plan and sketch their design on a sheet of paper. Designs should include a rough sketch, a list of materials needed, and a brief description of the design concept.
• Students will then have 20 minutes to construct their Peep Coop using the provided food materials. They should be creative with their design, making sure it is structurally sound for the Marshmallow Peeps.
• After constructing the Peep Coop, teams will have 5 minutes to share their design with the judges. Explain design choices, how it meets the criteria, and any innovative features you incorporated. Each person in the group must orally share information with the judges.
• While other groups are presenting to the judges, teams should photograph their peep coops. create an index card with all team member names listed and clean up their work area.
• The team with the highest score wins the competition and will win a prize. For fun, I would award a package of Marshmallow Peeps (affiliate link) to each team member!
• If you have access to a display case, feature the coops with index card labels for the whole school to see!  If you don’t have a display case, but have a website in your district featuring student work and projects, do a write up with the pictures students took to showcase what’s going on in your class!
• If you teach a housing class, you may want to assign a specific house style/type for students to design their coops around such as log cabin or bungalow.

Attachments

• Marshmallow Peep Coop Design Challenge & Judging Criteria Forms (please make a copy)
• Friendly Reminder: To make a copy, go to “FILE”, click “MAKE A COPY” and then it’s yours to edit.