# Team building exercises



## robertpauljr (Jan 8, 2010)

A friend recently said he is "looking for clever ice breakers or team building excercises." He is putting something together for a group of math/science/engineering type students. Hundreds of them. He wondered if I had any ideas for using Rubik's cubes in some kind of group activity.

Have any of you been involved in anything that might be helpful in this regard?


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## andyt1992 (Jan 8, 2010)

He could try 1 cube between 5 - 10 students a set of beginner instructions and do three turns each til one team wins first team to complete it shouts or puts hands up etc. Will get them working in a team and will bring groups of shy people out of their shell for the day.
Just a thought.
Be sure to let me know what he does in the end and whether it was successful.


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## CitricAcid (Jan 8, 2010)

Maybe putting people in groups of 10 or so, 
and each group has 1 cube. 
And they have to pass the cube around, and teamsolve.

Also, they could have 1 instruction manual or something.


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## robertpauljr (Jan 8, 2010)

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I'll pass them on. Sounds good.


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## andyt1992 (Jan 8, 2010)

CitricAcid said:


> Maybe putting people in groups of 10 or so,
> and each group has 1 cube.
> And they have to pass the cube around, and teamsolve.
> 
> Also, they could have 1 instruction manual or something.



Thats exactly what i said ??
but i said 3 moves each instead of teamsolve, i was just thinking so it doesn't take 3 days to finish the comp and they won't get bored of waiting for one turn of the cube.

If your friend needs any cubes feel free to contact me at: [email removed]


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## kinch2002 (Jan 8, 2010)

But what if one of them can already solve the cube...? They'll be sooooo bored!


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## andyt1992 (Jan 8, 2010)

In that case ask at the start if anyone can solve the cube and if they can give them a vcube or a square 1 or a gigaminx in the group that can solve 3x3.


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## Lucas Garron (Jan 9, 2010)

Asking non-cubers to do anything like solving a cube sounds disastrous. It's like telling them to go learn waltz from a dance manual. This sort of thing is hard to convey even one-on-one, and people are likely to get embarrassed or cocky.

I suggest giving them some solved cubes and trying to come up with pretty patterns. How fast would you be able to solve cubes they'd messed up and want to start over with?


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## shelley (Jan 9, 2010)

Might work with 2x2 cubes. First layer is intuitive enough, and a smaller number of last layer cases makes it more manageable. Having non-cubers try to teamsolve a 3x3 given only a simple instruction manual sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, not a team building activity.


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## StachuK1992 (Jan 9, 2010)

The thing is, what if you have a kid in a group that already cubes?
If you're working with "[groups] of math/science/engineering type students," then your odds of having one of these is decent, I think.


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## fanwuq (Jan 9, 2010)

shelley said:


> Might work with 2x2 cubes. First layer is intuitive enough, and a smaller number of last layer cases makes it more manageable. Having non-cubers try to teamsolve a 3x3 given only a simple instruction manual sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, not a team building activity.



Most people I know that can solve one layer of the 3x3x3 cannot solve one layer of the 2x2x2. Something about having no centers really throw people off.


Get a few DIY kits. Have the kids assemble the cubes together.


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## Ton (Jan 9, 2010)

Maybe this

http://www.speedcubing.com/ton/Zomer%20Kamp/ZomerKamp.htm


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## robertpauljr (Jan 10, 2010)

Great! Thanks for the additional input.


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