Maker Monday: Teamwork and Towers

Often, I introduce a maker challenge that gives students an opportunity to review or use previously-learned target language. Other times, I start class with maker challenge warm-up, which, upon completion and reflection, serves as a segue into the topic of the lesson. Today I'll share one of my favorite go-to maker activities, often used at the beginning of class--building a tower in teams.

All that's needed are a few groups--made up of about three students each, some supplies, and a time limit. The instructions are to build the tallest possible free-standing tower with the supplies in that time limit. (When I say free-standing, that means it can't be leaning on a desk or anything for support).

Sometimes I'll put a ticking timer on the board so they know exactly how much time they have; other times I'll tell them they have about seven minutes at the beginning, and, while keeping an eye on the progress, I'll play a few songs in the background. When I feel every group has accomplished something, I tell them that when the song that's playing ends, they have to finish. I think a maximum of ten minutes is sufficient.

This challenge can be done with almost any supplies, such as:

• plastic straws and binder clips and/or clothes pins--the ones that open and close (these are my favorite--they are easy to disassemble and can be re-used)
• aluminum foil and masking tape 
• pipe cleaners (I bring them from the U.S.; most of my students here in São José haven't seen those and need to be shown how they can twist to connect)
• toothpicks and any soft material to stick them in, to connect, such as play-dough, jelly beans, or bits of polystyrene (ideally packing peanuts, but I've done it with pieces of polystyrene trays from baked goods).

If students look like they have no idea what to do, I'll show them how the pieces can connect together, and encourage them to build a foundation first, and work their way up from there. And then I start the timer.

Some groups struggle to start, others go right to it. Sometimes a group makes great progress building upward, but finds that the tower isn't properly balanced, and it falls down. There's a lot of trial and error. Teamwork is key.

At the end, we look at the results (sometimes awarding the group with the tallest tower that's still standing) and discuss the challenge or the decisions made. There may be an opportunity to review a recently-learned grammar structure, such as conditionals ("It would have been easier if we had..."--similar to the catapult challenge) or comparatives and superlatives ("This one is the tallest; however, this one is stronger."). Or, the activity may serve as a lead-in to the topic of the day. I've used it for a number of different lead-ins in different classes:

• In a unit discussing technology, I asked them if the binder clips were an example of technology. They agreed, and I asked them what else they could be used for, before showing them a fun video of all the cool life hacks people do with them. Afterward, we read a text about appropriate technology and discussed how simple, low-tech solutions used in the right way can empower people in developing countries.

• In a conversation class, I asked them if they might have approached the challenge differently five or ten years in the past, and then connected it to a discussion about how people change.

• Another time, the unit was about challenges. During the tower challenge, at a certain point I stopped the groups and told them they could only use one hand. (I should have told them to use their non-dominant hand, but I didn't--I wasn't sure if they were up for that much of a challenge, but in retrospect, I could have pushed them.) It was really cool to see how they had to work together. After a few minutes, I stopped them again, told them they could have full use of both hands, but told them they couldn't speak--in English or Portuguese. They had to communicate with gestures. After about two minutes, I gave them back their freedom, and told them they had two minutes to finish the task. When we finished, we debriefed a bit about how they dealt with the limitations I had given them. We discussed what it meant to overcome obstacles, and then we read a text about people who faced and overcame some enormous obstacles in life. 

Getting students to work together toward a common goal, while using English, shows them the importance of teamwork and communication. If done in a class with speakers of multiple languages, it emphasizes even more the value of communication in English. I like to bring these maker challenges to classes every so often, not only because they're fun and different, but because they help build collaborative and problem-solving skills, which are essential in today's world. Hopefully, one connection at a time, with a binder clip or a teammate's hand, I'm doing my part to develop global citizens.

I'll post another #makermonday activity in two weeks. Meanwhile, feel free to find me on Instagram or Twitter @danitissima.