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'Doughnut Percents' printed from http://nrich.maths.org/
This
is one of a series of problems designed to develop learners' team
working skills. Other tasks in the series can be found by going
to this article.
What are you aiming to
do?
For the task:
Every member of the team must end up with a set of four dominoes
which join together to form a "doughnut" where touching ends have
equal value. For example:
The task is only successfully completed when everyone on the team
has completed their domino doughnut.
As a team:
- Responding to the needs of others
- Helping others to do things for themselves.
Getting started
You will need to work in
a team of four. If you have a fifth person available - use them as
an observer (see guidance below).
In silence:
Distribute the 16
domino cards
randomly amongst the team (four cards each).
Tackling the problem
How to play
Players pass dominoes to
other team members in order to help one another complete their
doughnut.
Rules
- No one can talk or give non-verbal signals to other members of
the team.
- Each member of the team starts with four dominoes in front of
them.
- The dominoes in front of each person should be visible to
everyone.
- Team members can only give dominoes; they cannot take dominoes
from someone else.
- Each team member must have at least two dominoes in front of
them at all times.
Use an observer to check
that the team obeys the rules and to keep a record of when members
of the team help someone else (rather than, for example, when they
just pass a piece on without looking at what the other person or
team actually needs).
Observers can place one of
the Hint Cards in
the middle, if after a period of five minutes the team is not
making any progress.