- ICEBREAKERS
To begin to chip away the those icebergs, the first kind
of activities we offer our groups are not
surprising, ICE BREAKEER activities. Icebreakers
are usually the first week or two openers
of our programs. They provide the participants
with an opportunity to get to know each other
better, to learn each others names, as well
as to get motivated for the upcoming activities.
They are the ideal way to establish contact
initiate communication in the group, and to
start building trust and tolerance among the
team members. All these interpersonal skills
are essential for the activities that follow
icebreakers during the programs.
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- Trust Building
Since trust is one of the basic criteria for successful
teamwork, trust building activities are a
crucial component of the team building programs.
An increasing difficulty of these activities
creates stronger bonds among the participants.
At the same time, trust building activities
serve as a tool to teach participants the
concept of group safety. Because many of our
programs may have a facet that could be dangerous
if approached foolishly, the spotting techniques
of these games are essential for the growth
of safe practice of all participants during
our programs.
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- Critical Path Thinking
We are famous
for our problem solving activities that are
a part of each program. The activities are
designed to teach several skills, among them:
- Leadership
- Team Work
- Problem solving
- Decision making
- Communication
- Critical Path management
- Design Engineering
These types
of activities are presented to small groups
(approx. 7-10 participants) and are based
on the principle of solving unusual situations
through cooperation of the group members.
In particular, the Gerhardt problem solving
methodology that he has learned as a computer
science professional for the last 30 years
Decision
making, effective and clear communication
and teamwork are the necessary prerequisites
for finding solutions to the given problems.
As the difficulty of the given tasks increases,
the group is able to complete the tasks more
effectively through their improved cooperation,
communication and other newly learned skills.
Participants realize what role they play in
the group, as well as what roles of their
fellow group members. For achieving the common
goal (i.e. completion of the activity or finding
the solution), all team members have to bring
their personal skills to the table be it physical
or "soft skills", thus using everyone’s
strengths and compensating for the weakness
of a team member. All this can be done only
through teamwork with a great deal of trust
and support.
Our success
in developing these activities is now famous
with our series of EGG CRISIS scenarios. These
are an ongoing elaboration of the well known
egg drop puzzle, but taken to new horizons.
The bottom line is youth come away with a
new way of thinking and approaching problem
solving.
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- Outdoor Challenges
Sometimes
the greatest learning activities are outdoor
challenges that take us out of our comfort
zones. For those programs that include outdoor
education, we examine the youths skills and
push them in a safe way slighlty beyond their
limits.
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- Program Technical Challenges
And of course there is the actual end game of the programs
and that is facing the actual technical or
scientific challenge of the program. Our programs
cover a wide variety of STEM subjects from
ecology to space science to robotics. Each
program is a stepping stone to a longer term
goal.
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