Students from one side attempt to accomplish the task of building a spaghetti tower while others observe them as if they are in a fish bowl.  They will be looking for specific leadership & group behaviors that help or hinder the group.  After processing the first group, the roles are reversed with the remote side tries to build a tower from the sheets of paper.

Several days before the conference as class work or as homework all students from both sides can all practice the activities so that they can focus on leadership skills during the conference. 
 

II.  OBJECTIVES

Students will learn to analyze positive and negative group dynamics including leadership & followship skills.

III. MATERIALS

Task ONE:  20 strands of uncooked spagetti, masking tape, 

TABLE  or flat topped desk

TASK TWO:  Five 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of "typing" or copy paper, masking tape, 6 drinking straws

TOOLS:  scissors, 
TABLE or flat topped desk

A.  Tell the school name & grade level. Follow with introductions of teachers & technical personnel, and students from both sides. 

B.  On one side the teacher should choose 3 students who have not practiced together previously on this project to be workers in the fish bowl. 

On the remote side the other teacher should assign 3rd or 4th grade students a specific student to observe.  (5th or 6th graders perhaps can observe all students.  They should record their observations on the fish bowl sheet.  NOTE:  Several students will be observing the same student since there are only 3 workers and probably 25 observers.

C.  The teacher should display on the document camera the directions for TASK ONE.  Workers may ask questions to clarify the task before beginning.  The teacher should resist answering questions after the building begins so that students rely on their group, not the teacher.

D.  After 15 minutes the workers must stop even if it's not finished.  The workers should answer these questions first:  Did they accomplish their task?  Did they work efficiently?  What behaviors helped, and what behaviors hindered accomplishing the tasks? 

E.  Then the remote side will share their observations for 5 minutes based on the fish bowl sheets.  Which worker had the most marks in the top section above the stars?  Which characteristics do you think helped the group work together the most?  Which characteristicts do you think hindered the group the most?

F.  Next reverse the entire process with workers from the remote side working in the fish bowl on TASK TWO while the first side records observations.   Follow all directions above.

After the video conference is disconnected ask all students to fold a sheet of lined paper in half and list positive group/leadership behaviors on one half and negative behaviors on the other half.