Purpose

The aim of this fun exercise is to encourage team work and creative thinking.

Objective

Each team has to build a self-supporting paper bridge using the materials provided.

Things You Need

• A stack of newspapers
• One roll of sticky tapes for each team
• A measuring tape

Setup

• Split the group into teams of three people.
• Each team has access to unlimited amount of newspapers and one sticky tape.
• Each team has 10 minutes to build a bridge.
• Facilitator can measure the length of each bridge using measuring tape.
• The team which makes the longer bridge in the allocated time is the winner.

Rules of the game

• Delegates cannot use the sticky tape to attach the bridge to the ground or table.
• Sticky tape can only be used in the structure of the bridge.
• The bridge can have a maximum of two support columns.

Timing

Explaining the Test: 5 minutes.

Activity: 10 minutes

Group Feedback: 20 minutes.

Discussion

Discuss with the group the key elements of team work noticeable during this exercise. Encourage discussions on the effect of communication, leadership and feedback systems involved during this activity.

Variations

As a variation you can remove the sticky tape and get the delegates to only use newspaper. In this case, set two chairs two meters apart from each other. The two chairs form the bases of the bridge at the two ends. Teams can only use paper to bridge the gap between the two chairs. The most elegant looking bridge with the least number of columns in the middle will win.