Re: Anyone have fun training tricks?

["Cassandra Greer" <cassandra -at- greer -dot- de>]

Another Team activity

During my EFL teaching days, I used this a lot at places like BMW, Siemens
and several technical universities, but I think it would work for native
speakers as well:

If you can get a hold of the movie "Apollo 13" with Tom Hanks, show the
scene where the people on the ground have to come up with an impromptu CO2 filter
with only the materials found on the space module and only a radio to
communicate the specs for this invention. Discuss how these guys figured things out
and communicated and the importance of good specs, etc.

Then split the class up into pairs, each pair getting two manila envelopes
full of whatever you can think of in the way of simple office/kitchen
supplies, e.g., 20 paper clips, a couple straws, a meter of aluminum foil, some heavy
grade paper or index cards, some normal plain paper, a few rubber bands, a
couple toilet paper rolls (I had my students collect them and bring them in,
make sure you have even numbers of the same size roles), a couple of sandwich
bags tape, scissors, pencil - whatever you think of. Make sure that there are
every manila envelope has a sister envelope with the exact same
'ingredients'.

(Please bear in mind that these are semi-silly scenarios and the supplies
are not the point)
Each pair gets a scenario, e.g., you are the guys in Houston and the space
rover up on the moon is broken and the astronauts have to get back to the
module. Your job is to come up with a spec for making a new rover with things
that exist on the broken one so the astronauts get back safely. You only have
one hour to invent something with what you have and write the specs and radio
them before they run out of air.

Scenario 2: the fan that pumps air into the module is broken. come up with
specs to radio the astronauts before they run out of air.

Scenario 3: A small meteor has punctured a hole in the air tanks. The space
suits aren't functional. Create a small robot to go out and fix the leak
before the air runs out.

The students have one hour to create the machine, write the specs. At the
end of the hour, half the teams are Houston, the other half are astronauts in
trouble. The Houston guys have their creation behind folders or something and
the astronaunts have their supplies (which must be exactly the same as their
Houston guys had) behind folders across from the Houston guys. Houston must
then 'radio' the specs (without seeing what their astronauts are doing) and
the astronauts build according to the specs they receive (without seeing what
the Houston guys did). Questions are allowed. They have like 30 minutes or so.

Afterwards the two creations are compared. A possible followup is a report
on the investigation of the accident and the evaluation of the steps taken to
resolve the emergency, i.e., what was done well, what could have been done
better, etc.

The pairs switch roles and repeat.

This can be done (if you are efficient with handling your group) in two
2-hour sessions. I have had the reports done as writing homework.

The creations are kept on display for a while so everyones colleagues can be
jealous of all the fun these groups had :))))

I have done this with everyone from secretaries to high level managers, from
beginners in English to really fluent people. I have never had a bad
session.

This activity can be very flexible depending on your imagination and the
needs of the class.

Have fun!

Cass :)


> | Hi,
> |
> | I'm a former techwriter, now independent course developer and trainer
> | (OpenOffice.org), and I'm trying to strike a balance between fun and
> | engaging, and not too freaky/fluffy since most people in my classes
> | aren't there voluntarily. ;> In general I do standard
> | instructor led
> | training with a bit of explanation about why it's important, a fair
> | amount of demo, and a bunch of hands on exercises from my
> | workbooks. So
> | not a lot of lecture, lots of practice, but I'm looking for a little
> | more Zing. Does anyone have tricks they use?
> |
> | Thanks for any tips,
> |
> | Solveig
> 


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