Go to Post The function of that part is to keep one student occupied playing with it during the entire build season. It doesn't have to be the same student all the time, they can take turns. - MrForbes [more]
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  #16   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-11-2012, 07:58
lwhipker lwhipker is offline
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Re: Team building activity ideas!

Our team does some form of team building exercise every meeting for the first several months that new students join the team or any time we need to work on communication within the team. We also often do a quick team building activity if we do any cross-team activities with other FRC teams to help the students and mentors get to know each other and break the initial awkward "get to know you" barrier. Sometimes, we just do it for fun. We find the more we work together with different combinations of people and different brainstorming, building, creating projects, the easier it is when the stress of build season hits.

Each team building activity is chosen for a specific purpose: getting to know names, getting to know each other's communication styles, working through brainstorming, looking at the design process, or incorporating some tool, mechanical, electrical or other training topic where working in small groups on a short term project would introduce an important new concept.

Mixed teams are great -- people from different subgroups, different FRC teams, different friend/sibling groups, different ages, different FRC experience. We almost always have a mentor team that the students try to beat.

The goal of the activity is typically two-fold:
1. Accomplish the task
2. Make sure everyone on your team gets their voices heard and are participating comfortably

The following is a team building project we often do with new groups of all ages and talk about the challenges of communication. We also used this one at SCRIW in October when our team did a workshop on team building (link below):

Chain Building:
Supplies: per table (3 to 5 people)
5 pieces of paper
1 pair of scissors
tape

Make sure each person at each table has a name tag or knows each other's name.

Goal:
1. Make the longest chain in 4 minutes
2. Make sure everyone in the team has a chance to talk/input ideas and their suggestions are heard

Process:
2 minutes to talk about how to do it
* No touching of materials

* 4 minutes to build the longest chain you can
No talking (or grunting or making noises)
One hand only -- the other one is behind your back or covering your mouth if you can’t be quiet

It's fun and people can get pretty creative.

Here's the link to the SCRIW presentation -- slide show, favorite team building activity resources and a few photos:
http://ncfrcteams.wikispaces.com/Tea...ding+Resources
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  #17   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-11-2012, 08:53
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Jon Stratis Jon Stratis is offline
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Re: Team building activity ideas!

Not engineering related, but I just remembered another one we did here at work a few years ago.

First, pull a couple of "leaders" out from the group. You give them the task ahead of time, and they get to determine how to present it to the group, and how to use their time. There is an arbitrary time limit involved.

The setup is simple: Outline a bunch of circles in a straight line on the ground. Split the group in half. Have the halves stand in the circles facing each other - the half on the right faces to the left, the half of the left faces to the right. There should be 1 extra circle between the two groups. The "leaders" are not part of the halves, they can walk around separately.

The task is even easier to explain: The goal is to move everyone on the left to the right, and everyone on the right to the left. You can only move in two ways: Either to step 1 spot forward, if there's an empty spot in front of you, or if there is someone facing you and an empty spot behind them, you can "jump" over them.

This requires the "leaders" to organize and communicate effectively, as well as ensure sufficient time management and brainstorming to find the correct solution.
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  #18   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-11-2012, 10:34
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Re: Team building activity ideas!

NEMO has some ideas under "Team building" category.
http://www.firstnemo.org/resources.htm
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Unread 08-11-2012, 17:16
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Re: Team building activity ideas!

Spaceship simulation:

Your spaceship is losing air. You need 4 sets of values: 1 from outside (concealed under screws with different heads, requiring "oxygen" to retrieve), 1 you get by building a structure, 1 you get with a Lego NXT task, and 1 you get by driving the robot or finding a protective suit and going into a "gamma radiating area".

I'm leaving out many details, but you get the idea. It was fun.
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