Day 34: Obstacle Course

Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period

Yesterday before leaving school I built my sophomores a lovely challenge for today. It was an obstacle course. The students had to pick one team member to be their caller. The callers job was to lead their blind folded team members through the obstacle course using only their voices to guide them in under 5 minutes. If they completed the course in under five minutes then they got 100 points. Under 3 minutes they got 200 points and if they did it under 2 minutes then they got 500 points. There was a bit of strategy involved too though. One team had the option to sit out. If a team chose to sit out without looking at the course and none of the other teams completed the course in under 5 minutes then they would get 500 points. If a team chose to sit out after seeing the course and no team completed the course in under 5 minutes then they got 200 points. None of the teams decided to sit out. The course was a lot of fun and I could tell that the kids were having a lot of fun with this challenge. However, no one completed the course in under 5 minutes. One teams did it in 7, another in 12 and then the last two didn’t end up completing the course. I had to stop one team because they were up to 15 minutes and the other team ran out of time when the bell rang. I didn’t think I made the course too hard but apparently I did. Only one team managed to not step on any bombs. I built a new course for the class tomorrow and I think it will be easier. I took out all but one bomb, I’m going to only make the person trying to complete the course start over this time instead of all of the team members and if they go over 5 minutes I am going to stop them because at that point there is no reason for them to continue. I think this course will be easier. At least I hope it is. I decided to give the teams today a few points. The team that completed it in 7 minutes got 200 points and the team that did it in 12 got 100 points. That will help the second time a lot since they are in last place. Unfortunately, I meant for this challenge to even the odds and it didn’t really do that. Oh well.