TY - JOUR AU - Groggel, Anne AU - Rodriguez, Elizabeth PY - 2020/07/13 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Educational Inequality through Marshmallow Towers JF - TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology JA - TRAILS VL - IS - SE - DO - UR - https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/educational-inequality-through-marshmallow-towers SP - AB - This ungraded in-class activity is designed to illustrate inequalities in the school system. The class will break into small groups of 3-4 students and will compete to make the tallest tower out of marshmallows and toothpicks. Each group received a bag of resources with varying numbers of marshmallows (mini and giant) and toothpicks (broken or whole). Each group will have 10-15 minutes to build their tower. After a winner is declared, the class will discuss how each group represents a school or school district and their bag of supplies represents funding the school receives from property taxes. Since schools receive different funding based on property taxes and private donors, this activity helps students visualize the limited or abundant resources schools are provided. Students will discuss the implication of differences across school districts, where some had a greater amount of resources, reflected with giant marshmallows and 20 toothpicks. Other groups with only a few mini marshmallows and broken toothpicks reflect school systems struggling with outdated books, limited resources, and overall less funding. The class will discuss the potential barriers some groups faced in the competition based upon the resources available in order to facilitate a larger discussion about inequalities in the public school system and how the school one attends may reflect a social structure that enable or hinders one’s life chances. ER -