Description:

Total time about 30’.

Agenda:

1)      5’ intro

2)      15’ construction and testing time,

3)      10’ reflection

Instructions:

Organize the whole group in teams of 3 to 5 people. You need at least 2 teams.

There are 3 variants of this exercise: 1) Pasta Tower 2) Paper bridge

The whole idea is to divide the time of the exercise and add there 2 unpredictable events that occur during the exercise. The teams are supposed to use a 10 min timeslot to build the construction in 1 out of 3 variants. After 3 min and after 6 min the facilitator stops the time, roll dice (k6) and inform the teams about the plague that is happening. Examples of the plagues:

1)      Plague of mice is coming to town. One of your team members is allergic tom mice fur and goes on sick leave for 2 min. Choose 1 person to sit on a bench for 2 min.

2)      Rat race competition, every team is recruiting and offering better wages. Every team is rolling the dice and choosing one person who is going to another team.

3)      Tornado, during night the tornado came through the construction place. The facilitator uses a hair dryer to expose the construction to wind for 15 sec.

4)      Sore throat attack – you cannot speak for 2 min.

5)      Winter holiday trauma – you were on winter holidays skiing and snowboarding and had an accident. All the team members cannot use their primary hand till the end of the game

6)      Budget cut - you need to remove half of the materials that you have not used yet.

The PUNC level can be modified by informing or not informing about the occurrence of the plagues. You can even change the game to inform them about the plagues and ask them to plan a strategy of overcoming them 2 min before the start of construction work, but we recommend just putting the teams in deep waters to experience the uncertainty.

Timeline:

1-3min part 1 of building

3min – stop 1st plague

3-6min – part 2 of building

6 min – stop 2nd plague

6-9min – part 3 of building

Variant 1 Pasta Tower

(Prepare one table per team, materials are prepared on the tables)

Your task is to build the highest tower only from given materials that on its top can hold a marshmallow. The height will be measured from the lowest point of the structure to the marshmallow.

Variant 2 Paper Bridge

(Prepare two chairs per team, that are at 60 cm from each other)

Your task is to build a bridge - only from the given materials - that can hold as many shoes as possible. A bridge scores when it does not break for 10 sec after a shoe is put on the bridge. The shoes can be put on the bridge only between the chairs.