The Longest Line

As part of our Maker Rings we have been participating in Team-Building and creative challenges.

It has been a few sessions since we did this, so everyone seemed ready for the challenge. Students have been working on projects and exploring the tools that are available and that has been the focus for the past few weeks.

Today’s challenge was:
The Longest Line.

From Jim Cain’s “Find Something to Do! No Prop Activities”

Each team of 4 students was challenged to make the longest line from one point. The only rule is that they could only use what they had with them, or on them right then.

“Can I go get something from my backpack in the hallway?”

“no.”

“Can I get this string from my desk?”
“no, just what you have on you or in your pocket.”

This challenge led to several creative solutions.

One team had paper towels in their pockets and they took apart the layers and tore them into strips, making a long line on the floor.

Another ring used the headphone cables they had with them, as well as stretched out sweatshirts.

Using the shoelaces from their shoes enabled one team to beat the challenge. This team spend some time after the 5 minute challenge putting themselves back together!

After this relatively quick activity we gathered together for a debrief. We were all very enthusiastic about the solutions the kids had come up with, and in a very short period of time. We praised them for working together, and recognized the cohesiveness demonstrated by each group. Some of us think this ease of working together is a result of meeting together in these groups for several months.

In the end we did not make a big deal about the “winning” team, and instead celebrated the amazing lengths these kids were able to manifest in a matter of minutes.

And the winning team had a distance of 54.5 feet!