I used this activity as an activator at a retreat for district administrators, and I think it would be just as successful to launch a professional development day for teachers. The activity requires people to work in teams. I set up teams of 4 to 5 people because I decided to focus the debrief and discussion on leadership and collaboration and communication. I think the activity would work with pairs, with a slightly varied debrief.
Overview:
Teams will build a tower, working under a strict a time limit. The winning team is the one who builds the tallest tower that can hold an apple.
Materials – each team gets:
- A pad of lined paper
- A roll of scotch tape
The organizer needs to have:
- A yardstick
- An apple
Instructions:
- Each team is given the pad of paper and scotch tape and told to build the tallest tower that will hold an apple.
- The tower must be able to stand on its own without any helping hands or object (freestanding). It may not lean on another object.
- Teams have 5 minutes to complete building.
- When the teams have completed building, the judge measures each structure and tests the strength by placing the apple on top. The apple has to be supported by the structure.
- A winning team is named.
Debrief:
My goal for the activity was to talk about 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. I started asking questions about the task and how the teams worked together. The questions I used really built off of the responses I got, so this is not a rigid list of questions – I suggest you use them as a springboard.
- First, I’d like people to think about the task and how they would describe it. Take 3 minutes to discuss with your team – just what was the task? Teams reported out and I jotted themes on a flip pad.
This generated some simple descriptors, as well as discussion about humor, fun, stress, performance, and leadership. - How did you feel about the fact that it was a competition, that there was a single winner? What did you think about the fact that there was only one criteria – the tallest tower that holds an apple?
This generated good observations about the fact that some teams were very creative and some (losing) towers were aesthetically pleasing. Most would have liked categories of winners, or would have preferred voting on the winning structure. - How did your team work together? Did a leader emerge? How did you reach consensus about your approach or strategy? Was it challenging to describe your vision of what you thought the team should try to do? Did everyone participate?
These questions led to a very rich discussion about the roles in the group, how some people took over, and how teams varied from very collaborative to more hierarchical. For some participants the task was stressful, and many brought up how important it was to inject humor into the process.
The discussion lasted for about 10-15 minutes. To wrap up I recapped some of the main points that participants shared, especially as they related to leadership, communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. I said that as we embark on our work with students and teachers, I encourage everyone to remember to look for and celebrate the skills and talents that don’t necessarily show up on a test, and to look for opportunities to highlight these skills.
To close, I showed this movie from You Tube, Tom Chapin singing, It’s Not on the Test.
