Zhengzhou Campus Hosts Teamwork Winter Olympics

How better to unwind and decompress with your classmates than through zany team-building activities? To enhance teamwork and relationship-building, and to help students relax from the academic pressure, Jeffery Johnston, Academic Dean on our SMS Zhengzhou campus, hosted Teamwork Winter Olympics this January.

Students broke into seven teams (promptly naming themselves the Cavaliers, Manchester United, Black & White, Kitty on the World, Hot Fire, Royal, and Avenger) to complete four crazy, clever, and fun team tasks. “The event perfectly illustrated the features of the American education philosophy – study hard and play hard,” said one student. “Through teamwork, I learned how to better cooperate and exchange opinions.”

Piggy Launchers

Using prepared materials such as chopsticks, ropes, and rubber bands, teams had 20 minutes to assemble a launcher that would successfully send a small piggy doll flying far across the room. The winner was determined by how far the pigs flew!

Cup Tower Crane

Task 1 certainly showed teams the importance of working together (not to mention physics), and they were ready for their next assignment. Called Cup Tower Crane, this popular STEAM project challenged teams to find a way to transport a cup to a designated location and build a cup tower (using rubber bands and strings) in 10 minutes. The team that built the highest tower was the winner.

Steal the Cup

With Tasks 1 & 2 as warm-up, teams moved on to a more challenging assignment. With a pyramid-shaped group of cups one meter away, a designated teammate had to stand on one foot, with the rest of their body maneuvered by team members whose sole focus was to inch their teammate’s body forward little by little to steal the cups. Not only a speed competition, this game fostered amazing team spirit.

Tear the Tag

The finale assignment – Tear the Tag – gave everyone a name tag for their back with the goal of trying to tear others name tags away. Firmly believing in the strength of their team as a whole, students spontaneously chose what they called “human tactics”, and they formed circles to surround their opponents and tear tags one by one. It wasn’t long before three teams were OUT!

Teamwork is an important part of work, study, and life. Teachers on our Zhengzhou campus turned a fun activity into an opportunity to develop students’ respectful and cooperative teamwork skills, and drive home the importance of working with others, taking advantage of strengths, and striving for greater success. The mix of activities gave students a chance to build friendships, enhance mutual understanding, and promote idea exchange. “This activity not only released my pressure about upcoming exams, but it also taught me a lot, such as applied physics and teamwork,” said one student. “I believe we will get perfect final grades after this event!”

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