Building Bridges and Learning About Ourselves

If you have seen the movie, The Internship, a comedy about two old guys competing with tech-savvy youngsters for coveted jobs at Google, you got a glimpse at how the business world is changing.  No longer do employers look at prospective employees' resumes and decide who looks like the best fit. These days for an interview, job-hunters may well be asked to work on a cooperative project with people they have never met before so the employing company can see how they handle working in a group under pressure. Wow!

Today, our third graders participated in a similar challenge.   Groups of 2 or 3 were each given 20 pieces of dry spaghetti, a yard of tape, and a marshmallow.  The groups had 3 or 4 minutes to strategize, then they had 18 minutes to build the tallest structure they could that would support the marshmallow.  I don't know if you have tried working with dried spaghetti before, but it's not easy!

At the end of the build period, 3 groups had built towers that could support a marshmallow; the tallest was 12 inches.  Four more groups had towers that could stand supported; the tallest of those towers was 16 inches.  The final three groups had some success, but didn't have a standing structure at the end of the allotted time.

Building the towers was interesting, and there were several important lessons:  for third graders the two biggies were mistakes are okay and creativity is important in design projects.  More important than the building though was the conversation we had when the 18 minutes were up.  We met at the front of the room and talked about the process.  We first talked about which was more frustrating, the building process or the collaborative process.  Fourteen students said the building process was the more difficult part, 3 said working with a partner was the hardest part, 3 students abstained.  I think this says a lot about our class culture. Students did not pick who they worked with; I assigned groups. Nevertheless, most groups felt like they had worked well together.

There was more divergence when I asked the students to rate themselves on a scale of more extroverted (energized by working with others) or more introverted (energized by working alone). This time, 7 students self-identified as introverted, 5 self-identified as extroverted and 9 felt they fell somewhere in the middle.  Students talked about why it was easier or harder to work in groups.  The pros of group work were having someone to help generate ideas, having someone to help with focus, and having an extra set of hands.  The cons were being overwhelmed by too many ideas and too much noise.  Many students noted that whether or not they wanted to work in a group depended on how much they needed to concentrate to do the work.  For instance, in most cases, students said that math was much easier to do individually, unless students were playing a game.

Our last discussion question was "why is it important to think about how you work in a group or under stress?"  Again, there was an engaging discussion.  The students agreed that knowing more about themselves could help with school work, studying and expectations.

It was a busy afternoon (thanks for coming in Mr. Beller and Ms. Rinehart!) and I'm glad it's Friday. However,  the happy thought that I was left with is how eloquent the students were when discussing the process.  I think Google will be lucky to have them!