Written by Jim Hutchins
In 7th grade science, students have been practicing working productively in groups through a series of activities.
In this activity, students are given parts to a circle and they have to assemble them into a perfect circle. Sounds easy, right?
The trick is that the pieces they are given will not make a perfect circle. In order to make perfect circles, the students have to trade pieces with each other.
Sounds simple, until you learn that during the activity students cannot talk, point, take any pieces or place any pieces on someone else’s circle. All they can do is silently offer a piece to someone else.
This activity reinforces group work behavior norms like “no one is done until everyone is done”, “pay attention to each other” and “everyone contributes."
