The first step in this process is to identify the problem or challenge. Write the steps on the classroom board, as each is introduced and explained. For us, that's easy—we need to develop a machine that can launch Ping-Pong balls in an accurate and precise way. Researching the problem is the second step. What has already been done by other people?
The next step is to imagine and brainstorm ideas. You can brainstorm in many ways, but a common method is to draw and discuss ideas as a team.
After brainstorming, the best one or two ideas are chosen and formed into an initial design. These designs are drawn on paper, with all individual parts clearly labeled and a list of necessary materials. Once this design is complete, materials are gathered and prototype construction begins. Usually, it is during the construction of this first "prototype" design when unforeseen problems with the design are discovered. Even engineers who have been designing for 20 or 30 years go through this process.
So do not expect your catapult to work perfectly the first time! The point is to learn from your mistakes, make changes to the design, and perform lots of tests. After many tests and adjustments, the catapult will eventually work. The engineering design process involves a loop of building, testing and redesigning many, many times. Show this with a diagram on the board. Each new design idea is called a design iteration. For your launching machine, this could be an entirely new design or something as small as a new way to hold the Ping-Pong ball in the spoon.
Usually, engineers go through many iterations before they have a design that works well. During this activity, we will design, build and test until we develop machines that complete the challenge objectives! Your goal is to design a catapult using only the materials available, thus you are constrained by your materials. Do you think you can do it? After completing our launching machines, or catapults, we are going to play a game in which we aim and fire our catapults, trying to hit different targets.
Hitting the targets earns you different amounts of points: 10, 50, and We want our catapults to be both accurate and precise in order to hit the maximum number of targets. In addition to making accurate and precise catapults, we also want to make sure that our catapults shoot the Ping-Pong balls far enough to hit the targets.
After launching, the balls follow what engineers call "projectile motion. Keep this fact in mind when you are designing your catapult's launching mechanism. To propel the Ping-Pong ball long distances, significant forces will be applied to the structure of your catapult in many different directions. Let's review what we learned about force. If the launching part of your catapult is held with a lot of force, your projectile the Ping-Pong ball will also be launched with a lot of force.
If your Ping-Pong ball is not making it to the target, should you increase the force on the launcher or decrease it? Answer: Increase. What if you launch your Ping-Pong ball and it goes way past all the targets? Should you increase or decrease the force on the launcher for the next trial? Answer: Decrease. To make sure that your structure can withstand all of these varying forces, consider using lots of triangles in the frame of your catapult.
A triangle is the strongest geometric shape because its sides cannot move unless their lengths change. This means that if you make a triangle using Popsicle sticks, one of the Popsicle sticks would have to break in order for the shape to change.
On the flip side, a square or a rectangle can easily compress and change shape into a diamond or other type of quadrilateral without any of the sides changing length. These shifting shapes could lead to a lot of stress on the joints and might cause your catapult to collapse as you try to launch a Ping-Pong ball. Now that we've covered the science and engineering principles behind catapult design, it's time to apply these concepts and have some fun!
Figure 1. In this activity, accuracy is the ability to hit the target with the Ping-Pong ball. In this activity, precision is the ability to hit the same location multiple times with the Ping-Pong ball. Writing Assignment: Assign students to write short paragraphs that answer the following problem question: You are a mechanical engineer who has been challenged to design a machine that can launch a T-shirt feet.
Another version of the game involves players receiving a list of 15 to 20 items, and selecting five or so to bring to the island. You can also vary the location of the game, substituting remote islands for destinations like outer space or the distant past.
Choose Your Own Adventure stories enable readers to determine the outcome of the story by making decisions. Each action has a consequence that takes the tale in a different direction. Participants can try to guess how the story may unfold by talking through the different choices. When completing the activity in a group setting, the majority of the team must agree on an action before moving forward in the story. Whichever way you choose to do the exercise, you can use the screen share feature in your virtual meeting software so that listeners can more easily follow along.
MacGyver is a show where the hero escapes sticky situations by improvising tools out of unlikely materials. For example, in one episode the hero makes a telescope out of a newspaper, magnifying lens, and a watch crystal. To play MacGyver, you can either list three to five objects participants can use, or challenge players to use items that are within arms reach. To make the activity more collaborative, you can give teams five or ten minutes in breakout rooms to strategize and design a prototype.
One player serves as the dungeon master, who guides the game, while the other players pick characters and make decisions to move the story forward.
Upon choosing a course of action, players roll a twenty-sided die to determine whether or not the plan succeeds. The game is story-based, the possibilities are nearly limitless, and truly creative problem solving options arise.
Pandemic is a game that pits players against the forces of nature in a race to contain and control disease outbreaks. At the beginning of the game, each player receives a role such as containment specialist or operations expert.
Participants must carry out the duties of their roles by choosing appropriate actions. Pandemic is a great game for groups because each team member has a clear part to play, and players must collaborate and work together instead of competing against each other.
To play the game online, you can use a Pandemic game app , or talk through the exercise while one attendee moves and displays pieces on the board. Note: The subject of this game might hit too close to home for some players, considering recent history.
You can find games with similar mechanics that deal with different subject matter, such as Forbidden Island. Check out more team building board games. Model UN is one of the best virtual problem solving activities for students. This exercise casts participants in the role of international diplomats who must negotiate to solve realistic problems.
Each player assumes the role of a country ambassador and must form alliances and propose solutions to solve crises. Depending on the size of the group, participants either take on the part of an entire government of a country, or play a certain role within the government. To carry out the activity on Zoom, players can take turns giving speeches, message other countries privately via the chat, meet in breakout rooms to form alliances or have more intimate discussions, and use the polling feature to vote on propositions.
If politics does not resonate with your group, then you can alter the exercise by applying the same activity structure to a different theme, such as the Justice League, movie characters, business board members, or reality TV stars.
The main purpose of the exercise is to research, talk through problems, and compromise. As long as these elements are present, then the specifics of the setup do not matter. International Monster Hunter is a fully-facilitated virtual team building event.
The games are led by a zoo-cryptologist. Teams must work together and solve puzzles to track down the location of mythical creatures from around the world. This event is a 90 minute group problem-solving exercise full of fun and fantasy. Learn more about International Monster Hunter. There are many types of problem solving activities for adults.
You can do online problem solving games, which require a different skill set than in-person problem solving. For instance, communication must be much clearer and more abundant when group members are far apart and unable to demonstrate or pick up physical cues.
Though many problem solving games include props and in-person elements, there are many games you can play together online. These exercises work well as educational tools as well as team bonding accelerators.
Upon completion, participants are likely to feel a sense of accomplishment and increased confidence. These games are also great practice for real life conflict resolution, creative thinking and team building. Next check out this list of connection games and this one with conflict resolution games. We also have a list of the best decision making books.
Problem solving games are challenges that ask players to think critically and use logic to overcome issues or answer riddles. Examples include sudoku, murder mysteries, and spaghetti towers. The best problem solving games for groups include online escape rooms, moral challenges, and improv games.
Some good problem solving activities for students include crossword puzzles, choose your own adventure stories, and model UN. The best way to play problem solving games online is to join a video call meeting to talk through the issue.
Using the screen sharing and digital whiteboard features helps participants visualize the problem more clearly. Breakout rooms give teams the chance to discuss the issue more intimately. Team building content expert. Angela has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and worked as a community manager with Yelp to plan events for businesses. Skip to content Here is our list of the best problem solving games, activities and exercises for adults.
This article contains: team building problem solving activities free problem solving games for adults virtual problem solving activities for students problem solving puzzles for groups problem solving team builders Here we go!
Sudoku Sudoku is a popular puzzle game. We made a starter puzzle you can use in your next meeting or virtual team bonding session: Here are more online Sudoku puzzles.
Art Heist Art Heist is a fully facilitated virtual sleuthing game for team building. Learn more about Art Heist. Crossword puzzles Crossword puzzles are word games that ask players to fill in words based on clues. We made a sample puzzle you can use for your game: To complete puzzles during online meetings, you can use the share screen function and add text through annotations.
Check out more vocabulary games. Online Escape Rooms Escape rooms are timed games that get groups working together to solve puzzles. Murder Mysteries Murder Mysteries are story-based games that ask players to take on the roles of suspects or detectives while trying to identify a killer. Treasure Hunts Treasure hunts are scavenger hunts with intention.
War of the Wizards War of the Wizards is a fully-facilitated 90 minute virtual team building event. A large unobstructed space — approximately 20 sq ft per participant.
High ceilings if possible or at least no low-hanging light fixtures. If your space happens to be outdoors, consider a back-up in case of inclement weather. This team building activity combines mental agility with collaboration, hands-on construction and commercial prowess.
While catapults are always the central feature, the objectives of the exercise can be adapted to suit your specific learning objectives. We can also adjust emphasis placed on tactics, collaboration, competition and team roles. The feedback has been nothing but positive. I received several unsolicited comments from many people who could not say enough good things about the program and the facilitators.
To be honest, when folks heard that we were doing a Team Building exercise the response was less than enthusiastic. It was definitely a success. Thank you again! I wanted to pass along my sincere appreciation for your team and the impact you had on our organization.
We had a great week of meetings and the events that your team participated in were two of the highlights. Thank you so much for the caring and talented individuals that helped lead each section. Synchrony had a fantastic time with team bonding on the "Catapult to Success" activity at their diversity symposium.
There was great involvement from one and all, event was competitive and definitely brought people from different levels, functions, locations and backgrounds together on a hands-on, creative and out-of the box thinking activity that teams could boast about.
Awesome facilitator who ran both the icebreaker and the main event effortlessly. TeamBonding was the best decision from the start! They were keen to learn my specific team and needs from the beginning, then worked to develop a proposal with those needs in mind.
Day of: the event was fantastic, went off without a hitch, and my team are still raving about the fun they had 3 weeks later! I will definitely be using TeamBonding again for future events, and will continue to recommend them to my network.
Our instructor kept the group engaged even though the weather wasn't ideal. It was well organized and they were able to go with the flow and make changes on the fly because of the weather issues. Great event overall!! Everyone enjoyed the activity we chose Catapult to Success , and the facilitators were great at adapting on the fly. They were also incredibly helpful and engaging so it made for a fun experience!
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