Event

Pullen Park Photo Scavenger Hunt for TOPs Teens

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

4 pm - 5:30 pm

Pullen Park

Activity Plan Explanation

This program is intended for teens ages 13-18 years old who participate in the City of Raleigh's Teen Outreach Programs.

Set Up: The event should be held at Pullen Park with any shelter as the starting point. Stations should be set up around the park in their designated areas. There can be up to five separate teams that participate and a team leader that ensures rules are followed and scores are kept.

Registration: Once participants arrive name tags should be made available and leaders should be facilitating the participants in conversing with one another.

Group Starters: In order to keep the participants engaged and excited for the scavenger hunt, group starters are necessary. The first group starter is guessing how many gummy worms are in the mason jar and the second is guessing how many people come to visit Pullen Park each year. The winners of these questions receive a prize at the end of the event.

Welcome and Team Dividing: After everyone has received a name tag and completed the group starters the leaders of the event must welcome everyone and introduce themselves and the event. If there is a small amount of participants the participants may go around and introduce themselves as well. After the welcome speech the participants will be divided into teams based on the colored sticker on their name tag or any other method that leaders deem necessary based on the amount of participants,

Stations:

Station 1: Spaghetti Toes: At this station there was a blow up kiddie pool filled with spaghetti noodles and marbles. Participants had to stick their feet in the noodles and try to get out the marbles.
Station 2: Iron Feet: During this station there was a kiddie pool filled with water and ice that participants had to stick their feet in to see how long they could last versus other participants. The last one standing would win for their team.
Station 3: Gummy Worm Dig: At this station participants each received a paper plate with gummy worms covered in cool whip and they had to use their mouths to retrieve the gummy worms. The one with the most gummy worms retrieved at the end won.
Station 4: Spam Toss: During this station the participants had a partner from their team and each got a trash bag poncho and a spam can. The participants all had to toss the spam back and forth like a balloon toss and the last pair standing wins.
Station 5: Baby Food Hot Potato: During this station the participants all stood in a circle and passed around a cup of baby food while music played. Once the music stopped, whoever the baby food landed on had to take a spoonful of the food. Teams earned points by if they ate the baby food or not.

Climax: After the stations everyone got together to announce the winning team and the winner of the group starters. Participants also received a prize of candy and a ChickFilA giftcard.

Cool Down and Thank You: As a cool down the teens were given Caprisuns and candy as we thanked them for coming to the event. The winners were also interviewed during this time.

Program Enhancements

Planning- During our planning process for the photo scavenger hunt, we planned activities that were fun and engaging. Keeping this in mind, we planned activities that were things that the teens don’t normally do during their TOPS program. We wanted to do activities that were new and that the teens would get excited about, thus motivating them to come. We also used the incentive of giving out prizes. Transportation was also provided by TOPS to Pullen Park.

Anticipation- We enhanced anticipation for our event through making sure the TOPS leaders at their site constantly remind the TOPS teens of what we are doing for our program. If the leaders are excited, then so are the teens. Also, the teens don’t get to go off site too often, so the trip to Pullen Park in itself built anticipation.

Travel-To- The teens were shuttled to Pullen Park by TOPS staff from their site on a bus. The excitement for our program was amplified by the TOPS staff through reminding the teens that it was not going to be their typical day at TOPS.

Participation - Participation was enhanced through the activities we planned for the photo scavenger hunt. Our activities engaged the senses of touch, taste, and smell. The station where the participants are eating baby food and gummy worms engaged their sense of taste. The sense of touch was engaged during the spaghetti toes station and picking up the bugs. The last sense engaged was smell. The station that engaged smell was the SPAM toss station. The teens were split up into a separate team than the staff and students, and the way they worked together and encouraged each other determined their success during our program. We had planned to be split amongst the groups of teens to encourage their participation, but by making it a competition against us and the staff, they enjoyed the competition and worked together to beat the staff's team and ours. This helped the teens view us more as peers and less as random people just running a program for them.

Travel-Home- The teens traveled home on the same bus on which they arrived. The conversations and photos from the scavenger hunt kept them talking about their experience for the remainder of the day and even until Program 2.

Reflection- At the end of our program we planned on having a slideshow that will show all of the pictures that were taken throughout the day of the teens doing our planned activities. The slideshow was something that they could look at and laugh about with their friends, and I’m sure they were still talking about their experiences with their friends on their bus ride home. They also took home prizes that would remind them of the event.

The prizes from the event consisted of a ChickFilA gift card and candy which really enhanced the teens' reflection of the event.

Jesse after getting off the bus, thanking the teens again for their participation and wishing them well on their travel home.