STEM Activity 1

Teamwork is an essential component in all STEM activities

What Makes a good team?

Video: Rube Goldberg

Video: What is Teamwork?

Video: Remember the Titans

Practice the Skill

Teams will have 20 minutes to construct a tower using 40 straws and 1 length of tape

Students are not allowed to talk, use gestures, or communicate in any way

The team with the highest, best designed, and most beautiful tower “wins”

The tower must be free standing

Any students caught talking or communicating will disqualify their team

Debrief…

What was it like to not be able to talk?

What was frustrating about this activity?

What was enjoyable about this activity?

  How did your group communicate? Were there problems

with listening or communicating?

How did your team members cooperate? What did you learn from this activity? What would you do

differently next time? How does this relate to life outside the classroom? How will

you use what you learned from this activity in the future?