Copyright © University of Cambridge. All rights reserved.
'Simplifying Doughnut' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/
Why do this problem?
This team-building
task i
s designed to develop
learners' team-working skills. If you wish to learn more about
these skills and find other team-builder tasks look at this
article.
This task depends upon members of the group noticing the needs of
others and responding. It requires learners to:
- respond to the needs of others
- consider the needs of the whole group
- help others to do things for themselves.
Possible approach
Share the purposes of the activity and the rules with the group.
Ask team leaders to hand
the cards out
randomly- four dominoes to each group member.
If you have more than four people in a group then use an observer
to ensure the team obeys the rules and notes when there is evidence
of members of the team responding to the needs of others, as well
as to place a hint card in the middle if one is needed.
- Here are the rule cards.
- You can find the Hint cards here.
As teams finish, ask them
to discuss the key things they have learnt about working together.
Use observers to feed into the discussions. Then spend some time
discussing observations you have made or teams have made as a whole
class activity, talking about how they might work more effectively
next time.
Key questions
As this task is designed
to be carried out in silence, the use of key questions is
inappropriate during the task but can inform discussion of team
behaviours when the task is complete.
- Can you give any good examples of when someone noticed what you
needed and tried to help?
Possible extension
The dominoes can also be
arranged into a pair of doughnuts or one large doughnut. Ask the
team to try and create these shapes.
Other skill-building
tasks can be found by going to this
article.
Possible support
Other skill-building tasks can be found by going to this
article.