NASA exercise
Adapted from the Association for Psychological Science's NASA exercise, this activity has team members work individually then as a team to reflect on their collaboration patterns.
How to
Set the scene for participants: You are a member of a space crew originally scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. Due to mechanical difficulties, your ship was forced to land at a spot some 200 miles from the rendezvous point. During the crash landing, much of the equipment aboard was damaged and, since survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the trip. The 15 items left intact and undamaged after landing are listed and your task is to rank them in terms of their importance in allowing your crew to reach the rendezvous point.
- Without communicating with team members, rank each item in order of importance. Place the number 1 by the most important item, the number 2 by the second-most important, and so on through number 15, the least important.
- Record these in the column labelled “Step 1.”
- Now, as a team, reconsider the items and come up with a new set of rankings. Record these in the column labelled “Step 2.” Note: everyone records the team answers in their individual board after reaching a group consensus.
- Use a timer to give teams 10 minutes to work together.
- Reveal the correct answers (see Facilitator Board for answer key) and everyone records them on their individual board in the “Step 3” column.
- Give everyone 5 minutes to calculate their total team and individual scores.
- To calculate individual score: Use column “Step 4” marking answers in the column “Step 1” against the ones in the column “Step 3”, recording them as ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ values.
- Calculate the number of correct answers and record the total score at the bottom of column “Step 4”.
- To calculate team score: Use column “Step 5” marking answers in the column “Step 2” against the ones in the column “Step 3”, recording them as ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ values.
- Calculate the number of correct answers and record the total score at the bottom of column “Step 5”.
Understanding scores and reflecting on collaboration patterns
- [Team score] - [Individual score] = Synergy score
- Positive synergy (higher than 0) score is a reflection of effective collaboration.
- Negative synergy indicates room for growth.
- Take some time to reflect and discuss collaboration patterns.
What we like about it
Tip
Ask the question: “Why do you think you performed the way you did?” to prompt reflection and discussion.
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