SOME highly unorthodox construction materials have been testing the ingenuity of pupils at University Academy Keighley. (UAK)

Students from years seven and eight took part in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) event, in which they were tasked with designing and building towers, using only dried spaghetti and marshmallows.

The youngsters, who were working in teams and timed against the clock, had to identify the best way of building a tower, in order to qualify for a prize.

The categories in the contest were: "Tallest tower", "Coolest looking tower" and "Strongest tower".

This activity was designed to help the pupils explore structural forces, such as compression and tension, as well as develop their analytical skills.

Some teams explored their ideas on paper first, whilst others adopted a trial and error approach.

Achievements administrator Shirley Cooke was part of a team of staff that judged the competition.

She said: “The students really engaged with this task and came up with some amazing designs, especially those trying to make the coolest looking tower.

"The judges saw some ambitious designs, some collapsing in the final moments, with the tallest tower reaching a height of 47 centimetres.

"The most fun was had when the towers were tested for strength. If the tower could support the weight of a chocolate egg, then the team won one each to eat. That created moments of tension in itself!"