The activity consists of:
-8 students
-a long piece of string that is tied in a loop
-8 blindfolds
Have the 8 students be in the center and give them the blindfolds to wear. Then take the loop of string and place it in each of their hands. Tell them they need to form a square with 2 people in each corner. No looking and they MUST speak in English!
Our experiment started with not a lot of activity because a lot of us were quiet because English is not our first language. There were 2 or 3 of us that we're talking but the remaining members were being passive and quiet. We ended up not making the best square because we didn't communicate well. Our professor told us that a group of engineers were told to do this experiment and finished in 30 seconds. One person took charge and went around the whole square to make sure with their hands it was equal in all sides.
After our professor told us how a group is when a few people do all the work and the others tag along, then everyone gets the same grade. She made it very clear that we are not groups, we are teams because we will all do the same amount of work and be graded differently based on our work ethic and accomplishments.
This is a fun and pretty comical activity not only to use English but to demonstrate how important it is to work together as a team and not as a group that let's one person take over like the person creating the square in the experiment.
Here are some photos from the experiment!