Warm-ups

Warm-ups are a great way to bond with your team and create a welcoming environment for students. Below are activities past teaching assistants have found very successful!

It is strongly encouraged to use warm-ups at the start of all labs throughout the semester. It will bring great benefits in team cohesion!


Team Building (free / online)

4 (Best) Corners

Tag: Similarities, Movement

Brief Description: The room is divided into four quadrants, which is assigned a preference. A question is asked and student move to the corner they most align with.

Time: 5-15 minutes

Group size: 4+

Cost: None

Benefits: Identify similarities find connections and bond with teammates.

Walkthrough:

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

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

  3. Students move to the area aligned with their interests.

  4. A few students may be polled to elaborate on their choice

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

Example topics + choices:

  • Best household pet? Cat/Fish/Dog/Bird

  • Best ice cream flavor? Vanilla/Oreo/Chocolate/CookieDough

  • Best pizza type? Cheese/Peperoni/Hawaiian/Veggie

  • Best breakfast pastry? Waffle/Pancake/Donut/CinnamonRoll

  • Best superhero? Superman/Spiderman/Batman/CaptainAmerica

  • Best Purdue dining court? Ford/Wiley/Earhart/Windsor/HillyB

The Great Wind Blows

Tag: Similarities, Movement

Brief Description: Students declare a fact about themselves in an effort to move their peers around.

Time: 5-15 minutes.

Group size: 8+

Cost: None

Benefits: Identify similarities find connections and bond with teammates.

Walkthrough:

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

  2. The one remaining person stands in the middle of the circle

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

    1. The Great Wind Blows if you… attend Purdue

    2. The Great Wind Blows if you… are from Indiana

    3. The Great Wind Blows if you… were born in March

    4. The Great Wind Blows if you… prefer Tacos over Salads

    5. The Great Wind Blows if you… are wearing socks

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

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

Tier Lists

Tag: Similarities, Collaboration, Discussion

Brief Description: tiermaker.com has many tier list (cereal, sodas, brands, pixar films)

Time: about 15 minutes

Group size: 5+

Cost: None

Benefits: Stimulate discussion while finding determining priories.

Walkthrough:

  1. Choose a tier list from tiermaker.com

  2. Pick an item and disucss a group where it should fall

Scribble.io

Brief Description: Online free Pictionary

Format/System: video game

Time: 5-60 min

Group size: 5-20

Cost: None

10 Similarities

Tag: Similarities, collaboration

Brief Description: Students work in teams to find 10 things they have in common.

Time: 5-15 minutes.

Group size: 2+

Cost: Your minds

Benefits: Identify similarities find connections and bond with teammates.

Walkthrough:

  1. Divide your team into groups of 2-5 people.

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

    1. No limits to scope, it can be personal, work related, or cultural.

    2. Must ask each other questions.

    3. Teams can not do negatives.

    4. "Purdue" is excluded.

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

Kahoot: Get to know you!

Tag: Guessing, Puzzle

Brief Description: All students submit a question with answers to the TA. The TA adds the questions and answers to a Kahoot. The students can play at the beginning of lab to learn fun facts about each other.

Time: Varies by set-up.

Group size: 2+

Cost: Access to a free Kahoot account.

Benefits: Reasoning, problem solving

Walkthrough:

  1. 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.

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

  3. The team will play the Kahoot at lab.

Wargames

Tag: Code, Linux, Puzzle, Learning

Brief Description: A coding puzzle game which is designed to teach beginning cybersecurity students, great for anyone new to linux/bash/terminal commands

Time: 5 min – 5 hours (variable)

Group size: any (can be done solo)

Cost: None

Benefits: Strengthen/teach linux commands, problem solving

Walkthrough:

  1. Put students in groups of any size

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

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

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

  5. Set a goal level for the groups to reach

  6. The first individual/team to reach the level wins

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

  8. People may not touch each other computer

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

  10. Ask for any improvements for the activity


Team Building (in-person)

Wads of Truth

Tag: Similarities, Writing

Brief Description: Identify facts about each other after a thrilling snowball fight

Time: 15 min

Group size: 5+

Cost: 1 blank paper per two students

Benefits: Collaboration, problem solving

Walkthrough:

  1. Cut sheets of paper into quarters

  2. Give each student two quarters

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

  4. The quarter is then crumpled into a ball-like shape

  5. The wads are then tossed around, like a snowball fight

  6. Each student collects two wads

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

Ball Drop

Tag: Puzzle, Communication

Brief Description: Drop a ball into a bucket, the catch is everyone must touch the ball before it reaches the bucket after it is dropped

Time: 15 min

Group size: +10

Cost: A singular tennis ball and bucket

Benefits: Collaboration, problem solving

Walkthrough:

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

    1. The ball should fall for roughly 10 feet

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

    1. Time the group each time you release the ball

    2. Reset the test each time the group is ready to go again

  3. Record the fastest time to compete against other teams

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

  5. Ask for any improvements for the activity

Two Truths and a Lie

Tag: Puzzle, Communication

Brief Description: Guess which statements are true or false about your fellow

Time: 20 min

Group size: 4-10

Cost: None

Benefits: Learn interesting facts about students

Walkthrough:

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

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

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

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

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

Structure Charades

Tag: Lego, Communication, Puzzle

Brief Description: Reconstruct a structure with two teams. One can see the structure to recreate but can’t speak or touch the recreation. The other team cannot see the structure, but may speak and must recreate it.

Time: ~20 min

Group size: Team size of 4-8, split team into two groups

Cost: Free – (Have access to legos)

Benefits: Improved team communication, problem solving

Walkthrough:

  1. Prep: Create a lego structure of 10-20 pieces

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

  3. Split each group in half into builders and watchers

  4. Builders may touch the structure and may speak

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

  6. The first team to recreate the structure wins

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

  8. Ask for any improvements for the activity

Build your own Escape Room

Tag: Puzzle, Cooperation, Communication

Brief Description: Find some small lockable boxes, resettable padlock, keys, a few sheets on cyphers and try to build your own escape room. Props if its data themed

Time: 30-120 min

Group size: 4-8

Cost: Can be free (recommend some papers encyclopias/large books, keys, locks, and boxes)

Benefits: Team building, problem solving, communication

Walkthrough:

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

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

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

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

  5. Ask for any improvements for the activity


How are you today?

What Jelly Bean Flavor are you today?

Jelly Belly
Figure 1. Jelly Belly Flavor Guide

What cute animal are you today?

Cute Animals
Figure 2. Cute Animals

What type of donut are you today?

Donut Glossary
Figure 3. Donut Glossary

Which Taylor Swift are you today?

Taylor Swift
Figure 4. Taylor Swift

What type of halloween candy are you like today?

Halloween Candy
Figure 5. Halloween Candy

What type of pasta are you like today?

Pasta Dictionary
Figure 6. Pasta Dictionary


Charty Party

Brief Description: Card game, like apples to apples but with graphs

Format/System: Card game

Time: 10-60 min

Group size: 5-15

Cost: The Data Mine has a copy

Among Us

Brief Description: Modern version of Mafia/Werewolf

Format/System: video game

Time: 15-90 min

Group size: 4-10

Cost: None (for IOS and android) $5 per person on PC

Spaceteam

Brief Description: Communication game

Format/System: IOS and android video game

Time: 5-30 min

Group size: 2-8

Cost: Free