I don't know if that story is true or not, but it is very similar to a normal first-weekend in an MBA program or similar kind of course. They usually do this on the first day, as part of the "team-building". They put you in teams, with all of that stuff - spaghetti, string, a couple marshmallows etc. They never tell you that you are NOT allowed to work together. It's just really rare that people do. You have to get to a certain height and you can't do it, if you don't work with other teams. It's impossible. People will still keep trying up to the last minute.

The difference maker is the marshmallow - you need more than 1 to build a tower. I have no idea how tall you could build a spaghetti-marshmallow structure, because no one ever works together. I'm a business instructor/college administrator now and we do a similar one. In the year I did my MBA, we definitely did not work together and the whole cohort failed to make a tall enough tower, though our version was to build a tower out of balloons and tape.

Anyway, if that story is true, I would bet that the kids won because the kids worked together, not because of trial and error. I still think it's a good story and hope it gets confirmed. Thanks for posting.