Team Building: Tower of Power

Being able to work in a group is a skill that will be beneficial throughout someone's life. Through collaborative activities, AVID students are able to learn how to more effectively work with students from a variety of groups.

The challenge this week was called Tower of Power. Students were sorted into groups different from their regular table groups. Each group was given the same set of materials:

stunt doubles were used for this pic

• 
  
• paper bag
• 3 index cards
• 2 pieces of paper
• 2 large paper clips
• 3 small paper clips
• a straw
• 1 rubber band
• a small plastic drink lid
• a ruler
• a paintbrush

Groups were given 15 minutes to build the tallest tower possible with only the provided materials. Towers had to be free standing and remain standing during the measuring process. The group in each class that designed and built the tallest tower won one of our fabulous AVID prizes. The tallest structure out of both classes was 40 1/4"  with second place coming in at 33". After the activity, each student was given an opportunity to evaluate the group process and identify areas of frustration. 

This may be my most favorite AVID pic EVER

 The winning tower: 40 1/4"

Team Building: Project Human

As we begin a new year together it's very important that we are all comfortable working together to accomplish both academic and social tasks. To kick off the year, the 8th grade AVID students participated in ProjectHuman. Upon entering theAVID classroom each student was instructed to select one piece of recycling (bottles,cartons, boxes, etc.). Studentswere then split into random groups and given a few more materials - a coffee straw, popsicle stick, sheet of card stock and a roll of masking tape. Each group was give 20 minutes to create a "human" using only the materials they had.

At end of the building time, groups were asked to"debrief" their experience. Discussion questions included:

• Now that you know the project, would you have changed what item you picked? Why?
• What challenges or frustrations did you have during the process?
• Did your end result match your original vision? Why or why not?
• How can we relate this experience to our life together in AVID?

Team building: Tower of Power

Being able to work in a group is a skill that will be beneficial throughout someone's life. Through collaborative activities, AVID students are able to learn how to more effectively work with students from a variety of groups.

The challenge this week was called Tower of Power. Students were sorted into groups different from their regular table groups. Each group was given the same set of materials:

• paper bag
• 3 index cards
• 2 pieces of paper
• 2 large paper clips
• 3 small paper clips
• a straw
• 1 rubber band
• a small plastic drink lid
• a ruler
• a paintbrush

Groups were given 20 minutes to build the tallest tower possible with only the provided materials. Towers had to be free standing and remain standing during the measuring process. The group in each class that designed and built the tallest tower won one of our fabu

lous AVID prizes. The tallest structure out of both classes was 34" with second place coming in at just under 33". After the activity, each student was given an opportunity to evaluate the group process and identify areas of frustration. Evaluations will be discussed in groups.

Gimmie Shelter!

September 25, 2009 12:45 PM

by Rob Temple

Gimmie Shelter!

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One of the weekly aspects of AVID is "Friday Team Day" activities. For some of our Friday activities, groups are given a task to accomplish in a given time period. While the fun that can ensue is great, the most important part of the exercise is debriefing as a class. Students can talk about what worked, what didn't work, and how they felt about the entire process. Groups that were successful get to share their ideas and groups that maybe weren't as successful get to talk about their pitfalls.

For this activity, groups were given an unlimited supply of newspaper and tape and were instructed to build a shelter big enough to completely cover one member of their group. The structure had to be completely self-standing (could not be taped to the floor, furniture, or held up by the person) and be completed in about 30 min. In the end, 3 groups were able to accomplish the task and 4 were not. As you can see, some just fell flat!

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Unfortunately, Mr. Temple wasn't really thinking while shooting the videos so you will just have to get over the fact they are on their side: looks like it's time to upgrade to QuickTimePro.