@Desiree_White-Price posted in the VEX 123 Category about beginning of the year activities recently, and it got me thinking about fun activities you could do to get started with 123 of course, but also about ways that you can use VEX as a vehicle for building community and helping students connect with each other in their new classes.
We’ve all done (and probably participated in) ice breaker activities, and sometimes they’re really useful, but other times they go over like a lead balloon. Sometimes, ice breakers can feel forced, inauthentic, and put students on the spot in an uncomfortable way - having the opposite of their intended effect. But what if instead, students were engaging in short, open-ended STEM challenges, where they got to be hands-on, weren’t put on the spot to talk if they weren’t ready, and could get immersed in a low stakes, fun challenge as they got to know their peers?
Here’s what I’m picturing - you take a simple activity, like the Tallest Tower Challenge. but put a little bit of a different spin on it…
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Round 1 - Begin first with students working individually, to build the tallest tower they can from the pieces they are given (students can have different pieces, but should all have the same number of pieces and connectors) in 1 or 2 minutes. Then you look around the room and see which tower is tallest, and compare them. If the ‘winner’ wants to share about their tower, they can.
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Round 2 - Now, students move into pairs, and bring all of their pieces together to do the same challenge - build the tallest tower they can, in the same or slightly longer time frame. Then look around to see who the ‘winners’ are, and call attention to creative builds and unique construction.
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Round 3 - Next, we move to groups of 4. Still the same challenge, but more pieces, and more people, so a little bit longer time frame.
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Continue with this pattern - Move up to groups of 6, 8, 10, etc. You can even go up to the whole class! To see how tall of a tower the entire class could construct.
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For an extra ‘bonding’ moment - You could give a ‘get to know you’ type question for each round as well, so the groups are trying to build the tallest tower, but also learn each other’s favorite band or book or what they like to do in their free time.
This tweak to the traditional Tallest Tower Challenge gives students a chance to ‘work up to’ being in larger groups. It gives them repeated practice with the same challenge, so the building can be the tool to help students practice communication with one another. As the groups get larger, be mindful of the time they’re given and how the groups are functioning.
At the end of later rounds, instead of debriefing about the tallest tower, debrief about what groups learned about each other, or about ways to communicate effectively. This may or may not be the group with the tallest tower, but if a group had a shorter tower and top notch collaboration skills - emphasize that!
I could see this being useful in a classroom setting, or as a team building exercise for VIQRC or VRC teams. What other ways can you see using hands-on activities instead of traditional ‘ice breakers’ for your setting? I’ll tag a few folks to try to get the conversation going… @Tina_Dietrich @Omar_Cortez @Anna_Blake @LORI_COLANGELO
