A number of years ago, I was sitting in a PD session conducted by a colleague, when he placed before each of us fellow teachers a marshmallow. He told us ‘If you do not eat your marshmallow during this session, you will get another one at the end. However, if you do eat it then you will not get another one.’ He then proceeded to train us in the PD topic of our new reporting system and did not mention the marshmallow. Some teachers ate it, some didn’t. At the end of the session he explained to us what the premise of his marshmallow game was.
Watch the following short talk from TED U, where Joachim de Posada demonstrates this experiment with children. Not only will it answer your inquisitive mind (that is, if you are not already clued up about the experiment!) and make you laugh until tears roll down your face, it will amaze you how simple and true the concept really is. Conducting the experiment with your class or, even better yet, conducting it and showing this clip will empower your students with a valuable metaphor for learning and life.
Written by Beyond Chalk Blog .Beyond Chalk Blog
