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I was at a math camp where one of the activities was that each team had to design a paper plane and get it to a castle on top of a hill by throwing it the fewes

by yreg 4y ago

I was at a math camp where one of the activities was that each team had to design a paper plane and get it to a castle on top of a hill by throwing it the fewest times possible (like in golf). Several teams converged on a design of a crumbled ball of paper as that was what offered the best combination of accuracy and distance. Since there was no rule against it, we've allowed it. Some of the teams who played with conventional airplanes got furious. (These were all adult people!) Although innitially looking fairly innocent, I believe it ended up as the second most controversial activity we've held.

michaelbuckbee 4y ago
I'm aware of an even more efficient "hack" of the rules as different versions of this type of story are a mainstay of certain types of business courses where they want to try and teach a lesson of working together, delegation, cooperation, task specialization, etc. The most efficient way to move a stack of paper to a goal isn't to take each piece and do something to it (crumple/fold) but to just leave it together and heave the entire ream of paper. Note: this also frustrates the folks putting on the activity.
- kqr 4y ago
  Lean consultant: the more efficient way is to move the goal to the stack of paper. Especially if the goal is just a defined point in space you can redefine it with no effort at all.
Dove 4y ago
I believe it was the great origami grandmaster Akira Yoshizawa who said, "Wet a piece of paper, crumple it into a ball, let it dry, and throw it hard. It will go quite far. A paper airplane must go farther, otherwise it might as well not be a paper airplane."
farmin 4y ago
I'll bite. What's the most controversial activity you have held at maths camp?
- yreg 4y ago
  Haha. It wasn't my game and it was called "The Stick". Played outdoor, between two teams who face each other on the opposite sides of a small playing field. In the middle there is a stick stuck into the ground. The players are assigned various numbers. In each round a moderator announces a predicate such as "even numbers" or "factors of three primes" or "sum of digits is a power of two" etc. The players who satisfy the predicate are allowed onto the field and their goal is to get the stick and bring it to their side. If a player mistakenly steps into the field they are out of the game. Grabbing and pulling other players while battling for the stick is fine. The last time this was played it rained a bit and the terrain was muddy and slippery and also the game was probably needlessly violent. Too many people didn't enjoy it and we've decided to retire it. ---- While I'm at it, the third most controversial game was a game where teams had to complete various tasks in and around the village after the sunset, find some objects, etc. We always have at least one such game and it is usually one of a kind, played just that one time. This time there was a special twist. Unknown to the rest of the players, each team had a traitor whose goal was to hinder the progress of their team as much as possible. The traitor whose team finished in the last place was the actual winner of the game. The activity was not scored, but the players were led to believe it is going to be scored. When we played it some teams had conflicts and it sowed a lot of distrust and paranoia that spilled into the next day's games as well. Also the players who gave the game a lot of effort were angry that it is not scored in the end. It was the opposite of a team building activity so we never explored it further. Although I have to say, I'm still intrigued by the concept and would like to try it in some other form one day again.
  - eurasiantiger 4y ago
    That traitor game looks, feels and smells like a cult brainwashing tactic.
    - yreg 4y ago
      Are BSG or Saboteur cult brainwashing tactics? - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galactica-board-game https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galacti... - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9220/saboteur https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9220/saboteur There are also some D&D campaigns that work in the same way (and unlike in the board games the heroes don't know that there might be traitors among them).

by yreg 4y ago

michaelbuckbee 4y ago

I'm aware of an even more efficient "hack" of the rules as different versions of this type of story are a mainstay of certain types of business courses where they want to try and teach a lesson of working together, delegation, cooperation, task specialization, etc. The most efficient way to move a stack of paper to a goal isn't to take each piece and do something to it (crumple/fold) but to just leave it together and heave the entire ream of paper. Note: this also frustrates the folks putting on the activity.

kqr 4y ago
Lean consultant: the more efficient way is to move the goal to the stack of paper. Especially if the goal is just a defined point in space you can redefine it with no effort at all.

Dove 4y ago

I believe it was the great origami grandmaster Akira Yoshizawa who said, "Wet a piece of paper, crumple it into a ball, let it dry, and throw it hard. It will go quite far. A paper airplane must go farther, otherwise it might as well not be a paper airplane."

farmin 4y ago

I'll bite. What's the most controversial activity you have held at maths camp?

yreg 4y ago
Haha. It wasn't my game and it was called "The Stick". Played outdoor, between two teams who face each other on the opposite sides of a small playing field. In the middle there is a stick stuck into the ground. The players are assigned various numbers. In each round a moderator announces a predicate such as "even numbers" or "factors of three primes" or "sum of digits is a power of two" etc. The players who satisfy the predicate are allowed onto the field and their goal is to get the stick and bring it to their side. If a player mistakenly steps into the field they are out of the game. Grabbing and pulling other players while battling for the stick is fine. The last time this was played it rained a bit and the terrain was muddy and slippery and also the game was probably needlessly violent. Too many people didn't enjoy it and we've decided to retire it. ---- While I'm at it, the third most controversial game was a game where teams had to complete various tasks in and around the village after the sunset, find some objects, etc. We always have at least one such game and it is usually one of a kind, played just that one time. This time there was a special twist. Unknown to the rest of the players, each team had a traitor whose goal was to hinder the progress of their team as much as possible. The traitor whose team finished in the last place was the actual winner of the game. The activity was not scored, but the players were led to believe it is going to be scored. When we played it some teams had conflicts and it sowed a lot of distrust and paranoia that spilled into the next day's games as well. Also the players who gave the game a lot of effort were angry that it is not scored in the end. It was the opposite of a team building activity so we never explored it further. Although I have to say, I'm still intrigued by the concept and would like to try it in some other form one day again.
- eurasiantiger 4y ago
  That traitor game looks, feels and smells like a cult brainwashing tactic.
  - yreg 4y ago
    Are BSG or Saboteur cult brainwashing tactics? - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galactica-board-game https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galacti... - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9220/saboteur https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9220/saboteur There are also some D&D campaigns that work in the same way (and unlike in the board games the heroes don't know that there might be traitors among them).