The Marshmallow Challenge

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The Marshmallow Challenge is an indoor, patrol-based, teamwork and creativity challenge that can be run with minimal equipment and twenty minutes of time.

Developed by Tom Wujec of AutoDesk (Producers of the FormIt app and AutoCAD amongst many,many others), this challenge has been used by large and small companies, schools and kindergartens, as well as scout groups around the world.
The rules are simple: each team has 18 minutes to build the tallest possible freestanding tower (i.e. Not supported by anything other than the floor) with the marshmallow at the top. My Rover Crew recently ran this challenge with every Scout patrol in our district. Here are the results as an idea of the heights that are possible:

Here is a video of Tom discussing the challenge and what it teaches about teamwork:

'Meal-salting' Machine

51 years ago this week, this letter appeared in the 'Scout' newspaper (24th November 1962)"

"Dear Editor,
during this years Summer Camp in North Devon our Troop held, as an item in the Patrol Competition, a Crazy Gadget Contest. The crazy gadget had to work as well as being as crazy as possible. The winner of the contest was a 'meal salting' machine, This i constructed from things found around the site and in the farmyard (see photograph).

To work it, one had to, after seating oneself in the provided 'operator's seat', pour water into the funnel, using the mug and water in the billy. One had to turn the tap and allow the water to wun down the pipe and into the billy at the bottom. When this billy had sufficient water in it, it floated a cork which tipped a tube which contained salt. The amount of salt tipped on to the plate can be controled very finely by turning the tap at the top of the pipe.

I would be very interested to hear if any other Troops have similar contests and whether anyone else has cosntructed a similar crazy gadget.
PL John W. Chope
130th Birmingham (1st King's Heath)"

Froissartage: French Scout pioneering with permanent joints

credits (clockwise from top left) Amazon, Scoutwiki, Scouts-Europe, Carton, Bricolage, Decoration

Discussions around the setting out posts led me to something new: the French practice of building pioneered projects with carpentry joints instead of ropes. The construction is inspired by traditional rural furniture and farm equipment, built without nails. The tools needed are a saw, auger, chisel and mallet.



Michel Froissart was a Scouter in the 1930s in France, who adapted simple jointing methods- primarily Mortise and Tenon and 'Flat' joints - for pioneering. Froissartage, grand jeu dans la nature (French Edition) is the classic reference book and is still in print (in French only, unfortunately for those of us who don't speak French).  The French Scoutwiki Froissartage page (in English translation) has more information.

More methods for finding the middle of a pole

After publishing last week's post on finding the midpoint of a pole, I had a few responses on the blog, and a good discussion over on 1st Facebook Scout Group, about alternate methods, and here are a few of the other methods suggested by various people. Knowing more than one way of doing something is always useful, so here they are:

First up is this simple method, from Jean-Marie at 1st Facebook Scout Group:

"Let's suppose I do not have a rope long enough, but just a stick/small rope, even smaller than the half of the long one. I set it at one end, perpendicular to the pole, and mark the point (usually, leaving a scout standing there). I do the same thing at the other end of the pole BUT ON THE OTHER SIDE. The imaginary line between the 2 scouts cuts the pole in its middle. Thus, when the Scouts see me on the line between themselves an their opposite pal while I walk along the length of the pole, I have found the middle.That's it ! The longer the pole, the longer the stick, the more accurate."

These three methods are all variations on direct measurement - measuring with a rope and folding the rope in half, using a tape measure and halving it, or pacing out with a shoe, a shorter stick, a ruler or any other item.

Finally, the centre of balance / centre of gravity for a pole can be found by a few methods, but this is a simple and quick one courtesy of Jean-Marie at 1st Facebook - put a short section of round pole underneath the pole, then push the pole forward or backwards until it balances like a see-saw. If you have a pole without much taper, this will get you close to the midpoint of the pole too, but if the pole tapers a lot, you'll be better off using one of hte methods above to find the exact middle.

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Finding the middle of a pole

Measuring and setting out are important in pioneering projects, but it's not always easy to use a tape measure and spirit level for measurements. Over the next few posts, I'll cover some good on-site methods for setting out a project.
The most common measuring task in pioneering is probably finding the middle of a pole. Carl Nitzsche of First Benoni Sea Scouts showed me this method, for which you'll need the pole you want to find the middle of, and one other pole at least half the length of the first one.

What we'll be doing is measuring where we think the middle is, checking our distance from each end every time. When we have it right, checking form the left and the right will give us the same point, because the middle is the same distance from both ends.

Let's work through the drawings:
1) line the end of the small pole up with one end. Lay it down next to the long pole and mark the end position on the long pole, either with chalk, a pencil or a blade.
2) now flip the pole over and line it up with the other end, marking the position against the long pole. The two marks are shown by the two green lines. If we had guessed well, the two green lines would be lined up. In this case, we haven't, so we move onto the next step:
3) pick a point on the short pole that looks closer to the middle of the long pole, and mark it on the long pole.
4)  now flip the short pole over, line it up with the other end and lay the pole down, checking where the new position is. In this example, we guessed well and the two blue marks line up perfectly. That mark is the middle of the pole. If you don't get it right on the second iteration, you can keep going, checking the same distance from both ends, until you find the proper distance.

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