Ideal for small groups, Tower of Terror is an activity that challenges participants to practice planning and communication skills, as well as adapting to new situations and reflecting on the importance of being flexible. If you have a group who will be implementing a project together, this is perfect for showing them the importance of quality teamwork.
Time Needed: 20 minutes
Group Size: Small groups of 3-5
Materials: 6 Solo cups, 1 rubber band, 4 pieces of string, 5 half-sheets of cardstock (per small group)
Directions: Give each group their materials. Explain that their group will have 5 minutes to build a pyramid with the cups only using the rubber band and string. They cannot touch the cups with their hands. The cups can only be moved by the rubber band and string. Play for 5 minutes. Cheer for any team who completes the challenge in the allotted time.
Next, tell the group you are making the challenge a little harder. They must now build a tower by stacking all 6 cups in one vertical line. The bottom cup should be facing up, the 2nd one facing down and that pattern repeated. Again, they may only use the rubber band and string to stack the cups. Play for 5 minutes. Cheer for any team who completes the challenge in the allotted time.
Tell the group they are now moving into the final round. This time they must collapse the tower. Ask them to put aside the rubber band and string and find the 5 half-sheets of paper they were given at the beginning of the activity. Instruct them to stack their cups with a piece of paper between each cup. Once their structures are built, the challenge is then to remove each piece of paper so that the cup above stacks on top of the cup below (this means all cups in their structure must be oriented in the same direction). If they pull the sheet of paper and the tower falls over, they must reset the tower and try again. Play for a few minutes. If/when groups find that the challenge is too difficult with six cups, stop the activity and say they can now try it with only 3 cups. If/when it continues to be too difficult, stop the game and instruct them to cut their pieces in paper in half so they are more like the size of an index card.
As they begin to succeed with 3 cups, challenge them to try 4, then 5 and so on. Cheer for any team who completes the challenge in the allotted time.
Debrief Questions:
- Which challenge did you like best? Why?
- What did your team do well on this challenge? How did you work together?
- What happened when it was too hard?
- How did it feel when the challenge was scaled back? When you began to “add to” to challenge yourself? (We think we have to do more to be successful. Sometimes we have to scale back and do less to find our footing, then we move forward!)
- How could your team have improved on this challenge?