The Great Egg Drop Challenge
The Great Egg Drop is a teambuilding activity that involves creativity and problem solving given a set of resources. The winners are the groups that successfully protect the egg.
A team building exercise in which groups build structures and try to prevent an egg from breaking. A judge tosses all structures (with the eggs inside) from a high elevation at the end.
To begin, assemble groups of 4 or 5 and give each group various materials for building (for example: 5-20 straws, a roll of masking tape, one fresh egg, newspaper, etc.). Alternatively, you can give no materials and ask the participants to find materials from outdoors, but this increases the difficulty level significantly.
Instruct the participants and give them a set amount of time (for example 30 minutes) to complete building a structure, with the egg inside. When time expires, collect all structures and then dramatic finale in which the structures are dropped from at least 10 feet in elevation and then inspected to see if the eggs survived.
The winners are the groups that were successful in protecting the egg.
This activity is useful to illustrate the importance of team and to highlight aspects of project management.
Moment of Reflection
- What was the most difficult part of the task?
- What process did your group use to make decisions? Were all ideas explored? What did you notice about your planning process?
- What strategies did they adopt and why?
- Knowing what you know now, would you do anything different next time?
The topics of this publication: teamwork, integration, interactions, collaboration, cooperation, adaptability skills, strategy, leadership, role playing, planning, adaptation
