After participating in the Freshman Success / Fresh Ideas Symposium
and assessing my own teaching styles and skills, I conceived of a class exercise
that would duplicate the exercise the faculty was asked to engage in during
the symposium. In 4 different sections of Critical Writing & Reading class,
I brought the students outside to participate in the exercise involving three
balls and an estimated 25 students per class. I instructed them to form a
circle and to pass one ball back and fourth and provided minimal rules at
first:
The ball was to be passed across the circle;
No one was allowed to touch the ball more than once;
Everyone was required to touch the ball once.
Description of Exercise:
Phase I: The students in all 4 sections initially began
to toss the ball randomly, then soon realized that someone would have to touch
the ball twice unless they organized better. Just before they seemed to have
this portion under control, I tossed a second ball into the group. The challenge
grew more intense, concentration had to be more acute, and the dialogue seemed
to slow down while they all attempted to achieve their common goal. Finally
a third, more dramatic ball was introduced into the exercise. This ball was
clearly distinct in both size (it was smaller) and substance (it was, as one
student declared “icky mushy”). It was a gel filled ball. The
introduction of the second ball seemed more challenging, but the introducing
the third uncommon ball proved to be impossible, although it was enjoyable
for us all to watch the effort.
Phase II: During Phase II, the ground rules were altered.
I became slightly more directive and told them the goal was to speed up the
process: they were required to toss the ball using the same directions as
above, but the additional challenge was to perform it in under 15 seconds.
Two of the 4 classes expressed their opinion that this would be impossible.
However, they were willing to make the attempt. This phase became far more
collaborative, and leaders within the class began to emerge: some were exceedingly
creative in their offered solutions; some were clinical. While the class discussed
possibilities, I let it slip that one class I’d conducted this exercise
with had actually performed it in less than 5 seconds. The more competitive
in the classes took up this challenge.
Results:
Ultimately all 4 classes found a way to achieve the goal of having
the ball pass through everyone’s hands in under 10 seconds; 3 of the
4 classes managed (or claimed) that they’d “beat” that team
that had achieved their goal in under 5 seconds. (A curious side note here:
those 3 classes ended up being more cohesive in their class collaborative
work throughout the semester, although the exercise was not controlled enough
to determine if there was any correlation.)
At the end of the exercise, I brought all 4 classes back into
the classrooms and asked them each to try to explain what each of the 3 balls
might signify. I asked them to write a journal entry explaining what insight
they might have gained from this exercise. I end the report with a passage
first from an 18-year-old female student’s assessment and a very curiously
different perspective from a 19-year-old male engineering student.
18 Year old female student: The balls represented the
difficulty levels of the challenge, which then stimulated our bodies physically,
by having to catch it, and mentally by strategizing ways in which to accomplish
the goal. I learned the more people involved, the more communication needed,
because everyone has different ideas, which in turn needed to be revised into
one working plan. It was a bit time consuming to include everyone’s
ideas and to control each other from talking over one another.
19-Year-old male engineering student: The three balls
used in our class activity were used as a way of introducing our names to
one another. At first, we tossed only a single ball around the room and as
time progressed we added more, which made for more confusion. As we were presented
with tasks that our teacher gave us we joined our thoughts together to make
reasonable attempts at our task. This brings me to the representation of the
three balls in our situation, in terms of my theory of dimensions. At first
we used only a single ball, which is representative of the first dimension.
The first dimension is easy to travel upon because it can only be traveled
upon or seen in two directions: forward or backwards, up or down, and etc.
When we tossed only a single ball around we had few problems but when a second
was added we had more difficulty completing our task, which represents the
addition of another dimension upon the first dimension. The second dimension
gives the first dimension the ability to travel or see in two directions:
up and down, forward or backwards, and etc. When we were given a third ball,
things became chaotic and we had less coordination, which is representative
of the third dimension. The third dimension is added upon the first and second,
and gives other dimensions the ability to travel or see in three directions:
up or down, forward or backwards, left or right, and etc. However, just having
a couple of dimensions stacked upon one another does no good without a point
of origin from which something can overshadow the three dimensions. Thus far,
I have hinted upon the fact that each dimension overlaps upon the other or
sees what the other is doing, which brings me to the fourth dimension, the
dimension of perspective or origin. The fourth dimension is the guide to the
other three dimensions and travels or sees within 3D space sensing all three
dimensions at once. This relates to how we as a class overcame the situation
and came up with a concrete plan. We, theoretically, squished the three balls
into a dimension of perspective or origin, and our plan worked.
