From Year 10
Year 10 fully embraced the spirit of Mercy Day and raised almost $300. It was great to see everyone getting so involved, from assisting at the slushie and spider stall, taking photographs, assisting with craft activities, donating money, or giving money to another year level’s activity. I was so impressed by the manner that Year 10 students spoke to all our customers, particularly to our younger students,
In SAS, students were given the challenge to construct a tower as high as possible using only 25 pieces of spaghetti, 1 metre of masking tape and one marshmallow placed on top. Students were learning about growth mindset, teamwork and problem solving. This activity required creativity, innovation and thinking outside the box, but also being able to develop a plan and execute it as a team. After some unsuccessful attempts, students reflected on their interactions. Some groups were slow to start, looking around to see what others were doing, whilst others rushed in and created a tall tower, but it wouldn't stay up. Other groups completed some trials before determining their final plan.
This Marshmallow Challenge is commonly completed in the training of business leaders to help them to value the power and challenges of team problem solving. After completing the activity students reflected on their behaviour and were then told that often one of the poorest performing groups on average are University graduates with Business Majors because they have been told that problem solving is a linear solution where you plan, and then execute a plan. The best performing groups are children, who have just graduated Kindergarten as they have an instinct to prototype. Children often don’t have the natural power struggle within their teams that adults develop.
Andrea Barr, Year 10 Team Leader