Warm-ups

The room is divided into four quadrants (typically corners), with a fifth space in the middle for indifference or ‘other’ preferences.

The topic is displayed/read aloud for students to make their choice.

Students move to the area aligned with their interests.

A few students may be polled to elaborate on their choice

A new topic is displayed and steps repeat until out of topics

Create a circle of chairs with one less than the number of participants, with all but one person taking a seat

The one remaining person stands in the middle of the circle

The person in the middle states a fact about themselves, prefacing it with “The Great Wind Blows if you…”. Below are some examples:

If the fact pertains to someone siting, they stand up and find a new seat

Ideally the person in the middle can find a seat and the cycle begins anew

Choose a tier list from tiermaker.com

Pick an item and disucss a group where it should fall

Divide your team into groups of 2-5 people.

Teams will have a set amount of time to identify 10 things everyone shares.

When the time is up, teams can come back together and share out the most interesting thing they have in common.

Students submit their questions with potential answers to the TA. Methods to collect questions can vary and include pen to paper, direct messaging on Teams, google forms, Qualtrics, or others.

The TA will create a Kahoot unique to this team using the questions and answers students submitted.

The team will play the Kahoot at lab.

Put students in groups of any size

Have everyone use: overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/ to reach the game

Show everyone how to complete the first level (ssh into a server)

Assist people in initial level then show them resources to figure out puzzles on their own

Set a goal level for the groups to reach

The first individual/team to reach the level wins

If playing with groups, it is the first groups to have all persons reach the goal level

People may not touch each other computer

Lead an activity discussion about what went well, what was difficult and what could have been better

Ask for any improvements for the activity

Cut sheets of paper into quarters

Give each student two quarters

Students write a unqiue truthful statement / fun fact about themselves on each quarter (do not include name)

The quarter is then crumpled into a ball-like shape

The wads are then tossed around, like a snowball fight

Each student collects two wads

Student take turns opening a single wad, reading the fact aloud, then attempt to figure out who wrote it

Stand on a desk and drop a ball into a bucket on the ground

The puzzle is to have everyone touch the ball before it reaches the bucket. Fastest time wins!

Record the fastest time to compete against other teams

Lead an activity discussion about what went well, what was difficult and what could have been better

Ask for any improvements for the activity

Use the rope to create a large circle on the ground

Place the bucket with the tennis balls in the center of the circle

Give the team a lot of bungee cords

Instruct the team to remove the bucket without stepping on the ground inside the circle

Once they find a solution take away some element that made the solution possible

Have the team try to complete the puzzle again

After several iterations Lead an activity discussion about what went well, what was difficult and what could have been better

Ask for any improvements for the activity

Have each student think of two truths and one lie about themselves

One at a time, each student will share their three statements

The rest of the students will individually choose which one is the lie

Have the speaking student reveal the lie. If you correctly guess the lie, you get a point

Repeat for the remaining students, whoever has the most points at the end wins!

Prep: Create a lego structure of 10-20 pieces

Prep: Isolate the identical pieces to create the structure for each team participating

Split each group in half into builders and watchers

Builders may touch the structure and may speak

Watcher may see the structure to recreate but can not speak or interact with the recreation

The first team to recreate the structure wins

Lead an activity discussion about what went well, what was difficult and what could have been better

Ask for any improvements for the activity

Prep: Find durable water balloons and prefill them. (Cooler full of water can be great for water balloon transport)

Provide each team with a test set of balloons, several sheets of cardboard and a roll of duct tape

After 25 min halt all building and drop test each team’s contraption from incrementally higher heights till failure

Lead an activity discussion about what went well, what was difficult and what could have been better

Ask for any improvements for the activity

Provide each team with identical puzzle creation supplies (May be none)

Let each team brainstorm out their puzzle and create it, 20-40 minutes

When complete have each team find another team’s puzzle and attempt to solve it

Lead an activity discussion about what went well, what was difficult and what could have been better

Ask for any improvements for the activity

Provide each team with 5 strands of spaghetti, 12 inches of masking tape, and a marshmallow

Each team has 15 minutes to make a free-standing structure that supports the marshmallow

At the end of time measure the distance between the countertop and the top of the marshmallow