After learning the techniques of negotiation and working together, Gloria, Dave, and Paula paved the path to teamwork and even some engineering fundamentals. The day started lightheartedly with “Zoo,” a game that tests communication and quick reaction rates.
A Game of “Zoo”
Once students felt comfortable communicating in a group, their skills were tested in “Elevator Pitch,” an activity in which students must sell or “pitch” a random object provided by the mentors to their group. With some imagination and excellent persuasion techniques, students verbally transformed a plain hair bow into an instant makeover machine, a webcam into a monster eater, and a watch into a time warping device. The students were able to practice their public speaking, persuasion techniques, and oral and physical communication methods by this simple activity.
Individual communication became important for the students’ first engineering challenge! Students were required to build a bridge from 4 sheets of newspaper and one feet of tape. Each team member was given a specific hint that would make their bridge more stable. Their task was to communicate this hint to their teammates in order to construct the most stable and creative bridge. Mentors provided various weights, such as books, markers, and even large vitamin bottles to test the weight capacities of each team’s bridge. A fully loaded bridge constructed by Chris, Roy, Charlie, and Jenny is shown below.
Student-Engineered Paper Bridge
From the bridge activity, students discovered that they can listen and persuade each other, but can they persuade potentially troubling students of their own? “Extreme Mentoring” tested each student’s ability to lead a discussion with several problem students. In this activity, three mentors were assigned to lead a discussion about an education topic, while the remaining three students in the group were assigned trouble personalities, such as excessively talking, persistently poking or bothering other students, and simply refusing to participate in the discussion. For the students’ final projects, they must teach a group of middle school students, who might have trouble focusing on topic. This activity taught them the methods and skills to deal with troubling issues and how to refocus an activity when they become the mentors. Although many students had trouble dealing with the troubled personalities, as a group, they were able to control their students and continue on with their assigned discussion.
After a day full of education, “Wind in the Willows” finished a full day. The activity tested the students’ trust for each other with a fun game. Students closed their eyes and fell backward into a circle of their classmates who caught and passed them along. Manie is shown below falling into the arms of her classmates, Lynn and Rita.
Trusting Each Other with “Wind in the Willows”
Tomorrow, the students visit the local middle school to present their project ideas in their teams. Students and mentors spent the remainder of the day finalizing their group and individual ideas and practicing their group presentation. The student leaders group will present a project focused on two ideals.
The first aspect of the service project is a leadership class focused on teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. The second aspect is a community service project developed and initiated directly by the middle school students.
Until tomorrow,
-Jia
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