Marbled Bandana

• One marble for each team

• One plastic cup for each team

• One bandana for each team

Marbled Bandana requires students to adhere to a shared goal, even through failure. Teams hold the sides of a bandana, put a cup upside down, and balance a marble on top of the cup. Teams must walk through a designated course without letting the marble fall off of the cup.

1. Have students form groups of four to six.

2. Ask for one team to demonstrate how to set up this activity:

• Each team member should hold a side of the bandana, stretching it out as a flat surface.

• One student places the plastic cup upside down on the center of the bandana.

• One student places the marble on top of the upside-down cup.

• The team will attempt to move as one unit, keeping the marble balanced on the cup.

3. Have each team set up and practice balancing the marble on the bandana. Encourage students to communicate clearly and propose novel solutions to challenges that they encounter.

4. Create a simple course that each team must complete. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Walking down the hallway

• Walking in and out of doorways

• Walking through a maze of desks

5. Close the activity with a debrief, either verbal or written, using a few of the questions from the Stage 3 Debrief Prompts.

To increase rigor: 

• Allow only non-verbal communication during the entire activity.

• Blindfold one or multiple members of the group.

• Use a king-sized sheet, gallon bucket, and inflatable beach ball in the activity and have the entire class work as one team, and then have them compare and contrast their success with the original format.

To increase scaffolding: 

• To increase scaffolding, teams can compete with one another for the quickest completion time.