Marshmallows and spaghetti? Not for eating, for building

In honor of National Engineering Week, February 19^th through the 25^th, OPPD’s Society of Engineers is hosting its annual Marshmallow Challenge.

Laura Manning, a Senior Distribution Planning Engineer for OPPD, says the contest is conducted on Facebook and is open to all 5^th graders within the OPPD service territory. 

Manning says students learn a variety of skills through this challenge including problem solving, teamwork and strategic thinking to achieve goals.

"They get to take 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of masking tape, a yard of string and one marshmallow (to put on top) and build a structure.  The three teams that get the tallest structures will win prizes for their entire classroom from the OPPD Society of Engineers.”

The contest is online at Facebook/OmahaPublicPowerDistrict.  Manning says past entries are posted on the page so kids can get an idea of how the challenge works.

Entries are being accepted now through February 23^rd. 

Winners will be announced February 24^th.  They will receive goody bags from the OPPD Society of Engineers as well as a visit from an OPPD employee to talk about engineering careers.