It's a Pirates Life for Me!

Save Fred!

Today was the second day of school and I decided that a little team building was in order.  I found this activity on the Internet several years ago but this was my first attempt at.  I found this blog post over at Growing a STEM classroom and it triggered my memory about this great activity. 

Fred is a gummy worm and his boat (the clear plastic cup) has capsized.  His life preserver (a gummy lifesaver) is still on his boat and he can't swim.  The students must use paper clips only to save Fred by getting his life preserver and putting it on him.  

I allowed my students to work with a partner for about 15 minutes to see if anyone could save Fred.  Several people dropped him-oh no he drowned!  Students were allowed to try again if they let Fred drown.  

Our wonderful Math/Science coach was also a partner for one of my students.  Here they are trying to get the life preserver from in the boat.  

After about 15 minutes I allowed the students to work in groups of four to see if that would be more successful.  This did help several groups.  

Fred has been rescued!

The students really enjoyed this activity and everyone was engaged.  They recorded their steps on a sheet of paper and wrote a description of how they saved Fred or what happened when he drowned.  

Here is a link to a free power point presentation that will allow you to explain this activity to your students.  Thanks to Karre Nevarez at Teacher Pay Teachers for this great product.  

We had a great time with this activity and not only does it teach problem solving it is also a great team building activity.