Monday, June 20, 2011

Ted Talk: Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team

5/5

It is amazing how well this ‘Marshmallow challenge’ builds teamwork. The challenge is simple, build the tallest tower you can out of spaghetti and tape, then put the marsh mellow at the top.Most people would plan, then build, then put the marshmallow on top, then Ta Da! Others would plan, then build, then put the marshmallow on top, then Uh Oh! The thing was the marshmallow would upset the balance and then it would collapse. It’s funny cause the kindergarteners built taller towers than business grads, the reason behind this is that the business grads treated it like a business and all wanted to be the ‘hero’ for this project which created a bad team, but the kindergarteners didn’t. The kindergartners also build prototypes, which let them experiment more.

How does this relate to Outdoor Ed? Good question voice in my head/Mr. Brouwer, teamwork! This exercise teaches people to work as a team really quickly which is a good quality for any sport, not to mention it also teaches the importance of others and their ideas.

Overall this was a very interesting TedTalk, I highly recommend a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0_yKBitO8M

By Nick

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