Activities

Virtual Team Building Events

Activity Description

Scrapheap Challenge Team Activity 

Learning Outcomes for the Scrapheap Challenge

  • Team building
  • Encourages Original thought
  • Trouble shooting
  • Organisation Skills

Required Resources:

Scrap (anything and everything), old newspapers, scissors, eggs, paper, pens and Sellotape.

Space Required:

Small Indoors or Outdoors.

Group Size:

Any size from 8 upwards  (split into smaller teams of 4-8).

Time Required:

Total Time: 50 minutes

  • 5 minutes to brief and setup
  • 30 minutes for teams building
  • 10 minutes for launch/testing
  • 5 minutes to review and debrief

Scrapheap Challenge implicates a great deal of scrap and original thought. In this exercise the groups will have to invent a device, making use of scrap that will safeguard an egg that falls from a certain height.

Running the Scrapheap Challenge Activity

  • Divide and organize the group into smaller teams.
  • Introduce the activity: In your teams, you must build a product to protect an egg when dropped from a height. Each team will be provided with an equal amount of scrap to build their product. You have a total of 40 minutes to plan and build your product.
  • Provide teams with equal amounts of scrap and then allocate ten minutes for teams to plan and design their product. During this time, they are not allowed to build.
  • Once they have planned their design, give each group an egg (or water balloon) and let them start building their product. If a team breaks their egg, then they are automatically disqualified from the activity.

Launch

Once the time is up and their builds are ready for launch, each team must nominate one person to bring their build forward to the facilitator. The facilitator will then launch the item from either a raised height e.g. window or by throwing the item in the air.

Once all the builds have been launched, the facilitator with the help of the selected team member must unravel the builds one at a time to find out whether the egg has survived the fall.

Rules of the Scrapheap Challenge

  • Teams will only be allowed to make use of materials provided to make their device.
  • Group members of one team are not permitted to obstruct the other group.
  • As soon as the rules are broken that team will be punished (and may be eliminated from the exercise).
  • Once the device is completed, it must be transportable and self-supporting (not allowing any member or article to support it).

Activity Guidance and Notes

If you have extra time available, you can always introduce an exercise that records results before you start with the main challenge. In this way the group that gets the highest points will be awarded with more scrap, and the group that gets the lowest total will be awarded with less scrap to use.

There are a number of other team building exercises that are short and quick, such as “Human Knot” or “Photo Finish”. Whoever is facilitating these exercises can record them as any other activity. This means you can rate teams according to their interaction and organisation abilities.

You need to make sure before you engage in these activities, that there is no one who is allergic to eggs. If they are, then you can easily substitute the eggs with water balloons.

Debrief and Review of the Scrapheap Challenge

Some questions to ask to evaluate the teams experience during the game of Scrapheap Challenge:

  • Was it difficult to design your device?
  • How much thought and attention did you put into your design?
  • Were the entire team member’s involved in the building of the device?
  • Was it necessary to alter your design while building the device? If so why and how?
  • Is the changing and modifying of your plan vital?
  • Was a group leader appointed? Were all group members allocated with their responsibilities?
  • Did you complete the challenge on time?
  • Doing it over again, would you do anything differently?
  • Is the whole team satisfied with the design?

FACILITATOR NOTES

CHALLENGER BRIEF

SCENARIO

Your team must design and build a product to protect an egg when dropped from a height.

Each team will be provided with an equal amount of scrap to build their product.

You have a total of 40 minutes to plan and build your product.

RULES

The designs must meet the following criteria:

  • They must be freestanding (not requiring any support from any person or object).
  • It must be portable.
  • Only resources provided can be used for your build.
  • Team members may not interfere with another team’s build.
  • The first 10 minutes MUST be spent on planning – NO BUILDING
  • If any guidelines are broken, your team will be disqualified from the challenge.

Scrapheap Challenge Group Team Building Activity

Basic Details
Property Type : Team Building
Listing Type : Placeholder
Activity Type : Team Building
Focus On : Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Having Fun, Leadership, Problem Solving, Time Management
Outcome Based : Yes
Facilities : Indoor, Outdoor
Props Required : Minor
Duration : 26+ minutes
Exertion Level : Low
Group Size : 9 - 16, 17 - 30, 31+
Age : Children, Youth, Adults