Team & Culture Building
Design Squad Activities
I use hands-on engineering challenges designed for middle school students to teach my students to work together. They're also great for teaching the recursive nature of failure and revision and promoting creative problem-solving. Use the link to discover a ton of activities to try with your students.
Lunar Survival Team Exercise
This is an activity I love to do at the beginning of the year. It shows the students that they are smarter when they work together. The link above will allow you to make a copy of the Google Slides presentation I use with my students to do this activity.
Marshmallow Challenge
This link will allow you to copy the slideshow I use to run the Marshmallow Challenge with my students. This is a common team building activity where teams compete to build the tallest free-standing tower that will support the weight of a regular-size marshmallow using dry spaghetti noodles, tape, and string.
Austin's Butterfly
To build a classroom culture that values the feedback and revision process, I use the video Austin's Butterfly. It shows how a first grader used feedback and revision to make an impressive butterfly illustration. I tell my high school students, "If a first grader can do it, you have no excuses."
Design Thinking Projects
This is an enormous resource from the Stanford d.school. The hour long challenges should work great for building and sustaining a strong, collaborative classroom culture.
Collaborative Map Labeling
This is a simple, but powerful activity that demonstrates how much more capable we are when we work together.
Team-Building Activities
This is a list of over 33 games and activities that build communication and collaboration skills for students from elementary to high school age, and beyond.
Link to more links
This link will take you to a Google doc I put together for myself. It has links to team building resources that I've used in my classroom.
I use hands-on engineering challenges designed for middle school students to teach my students to work together. They're also great for teaching the recursive nature of failure and revision and promoting creative problem-solving. Use the link to discover a ton of activities to try with your students.
Lunar Survival Team Exercise
This is an activity I love to do at the beginning of the year. It shows the students that they are smarter when they work together. The link above will allow you to make a copy of the Google Slides presentation I use with my students to do this activity.
Marshmallow Challenge
This link will allow you to copy the slideshow I use to run the Marshmallow Challenge with my students. This is a common team building activity where teams compete to build the tallest free-standing tower that will support the weight of a regular-size marshmallow using dry spaghetti noodles, tape, and string.
Austin's Butterfly
To build a classroom culture that values the feedback and revision process, I use the video Austin's Butterfly. It shows how a first grader used feedback and revision to make an impressive butterfly illustration. I tell my high school students, "If a first grader can do it, you have no excuses."
Design Thinking Projects
This is an enormous resource from the Stanford d.school. The hour long challenges should work great for building and sustaining a strong, collaborative classroom culture.
Collaborative Map Labeling
This is a simple, but powerful activity that demonstrates how much more capable we are when we work together.
Team-Building Activities
This is a list of over 33 games and activities that build communication and collaboration skills for students from elementary to high school age, and beyond.
Link to more links
This link will take you to a Google doc I put together for myself. It has links to team building resources that I've used in my classroom.
PBL Websites
PBLWorks
The Buck Institute for Education is a recognized leader in project based learning. Their website has resources for teachers of all experience levels.
The Buck Institute for Education is a recognized leader in project based learning. Their website has resources for teachers of all experience levels.
High Tech High
High Tech High has been blazing a trail for innovative PBL projects for years now. The link will take you straight to the HTH Student Projects page.
High Tech High has been blazing a trail for innovative PBL projects for years now. The link will take you straight to the HTH Student Projects page.
Partnerships for Authentic Learning and Leadership
Resources to help make learning irresistible.
Resources to help make learning irresistible.
Getting Smart
The Getting Smart team has put together a terrific web page devoted to PBL.
The Getting Smart team has put together a terrific web page devoted to PBL.
PBL Videos
Raining Poetry
This is a video explaining how I created a PBL project in which my students made it rain poetry with a social message. There are free resources linked below the video.
QR Code Adventure Part 1 & Part 2
In these videos, I provide an overview of a QR Code Adventure and a specific example of how I created one. There are free resources linked below the videos.
#QRConnectedCampus
This video depicts an example of a campus-wide project that can be revised for use with a variety of ages and subject areas. There are free resources linked below the video.
PBL Reflections
This is a brief video I made about PBL.
This is a video explaining how I created a PBL project in which my students made it rain poetry with a social message. There are free resources linked below the video.
QR Code Adventure Part 1 & Part 2
In these videos, I provide an overview of a QR Code Adventure and a specific example of how I created one. There are free resources linked below the videos.
#QRConnectedCampus
This video depicts an example of a campus-wide project that can be revised for use with a variety of ages and subject areas. There are free resources linked below the video.
PBL Reflections
This is a brief video I made about PBL.