Instructor provides a set of somewhat vague tasks to a few groups or individuals (“Draw me a tire swing” / “Write me a poem about fish” / “Tell me about [yourself | your selves]”). The instructor has a specific interpretation in mind, in advance (“An old tire from a dump truck, tied via blue-painted rope to hang horizontal to the ground, 3 feet from the ground, from a large branch of a willow tree” / “A haiku about salmon and how they are unpleasant when used as projectiles” / “Your favorite hobby, color, flavor of ice cream, but not physical characteristics or past job history”). These tasks are mixed among more specific tasks, whose initial description more precisely matches their intention (“Draw me a series of five overlapping lines that connect end-to-end, and form a five-pointed star”).
The groups are set loose to perform their tasks, and are able to ask for further details. The results are scored on proximity to the intended result and perhaps on speed.
Performed in rounds, it would help to pick out when one is speaking too abstractly about something that, on the surface, sounds simple enough (How much detail do you really need to draw a tire swing?!).
Possible Trigger:
After a few rounds to get a feel for how it should work, break groups up into sub-groups, where they take turns providing and performing these minor tasks. Have those providing write down their intention up front, and the performer record any questions they ask for clarification, so that it can be compared with results. The intention, clarifying questions, and results can be used to reinforce the desire to be specific up front by scoring based on proximity of result to intention and also based on the number of clarifying questions needed to create the result (with the ideal being having an intention specific enough that fewer clarifying questions are needed to create a result with close proximity).
A narrower set of tasks that would require less setup:
Have two sets of colored sticks (straws from a dollar store would suffice) that match each other in color, length and quantity. Group A arranges one set in a particular arrangement, out of sight of group B. Group A provides an initial description of the arrangement in as much detail as they feel is necessary. Group B attempts to recreate the arrangement with their own set. Group A gets a score for the similarity of the result of B to their own arrangement.
Group B is then able to ask clarifying questions, and adjust their arrangement as they seem fit. Upon satisfaction, they are scored based on their result’s similarity to group B’s initial arrangement. Only after group B has been scored should they be able to see group A’s initial arrangement. It would probably be handy to only allow a certain number of clarifying questions, perhaps X questions per round for N rounds of questioning with group B modifying their arrangement as needed between rounds.
I like the idea of “provide abstract instructions, and leave it up to the students to realize that this is too general, and that they need to ask for more information.”
I would say, however, that usually when you need more information, you’re aware of that need. In Eliezer’s example, Paul can automatically recognize that he needs more information, because he doesn’t have enough information for his own task.
The very simple example would be to split in to pairs: a describer and a picker. The describer is given a picture of the piece they need, and a quick description to read (print these ahead of time!): i.e. they might need a blue 2x8x1 block, but they’re told to ask for “a long block”. The picker then has to realize they don’t have sufficient information, and ask to clarify.
It’s teaching a VERY basic level of “realize I need more information, and then ask for it”—after the first example, every student will REALIZE what they need to be asking (size + color), so there’s minimal sense of discovery/novelty. I think you would only be able to spend 5-10 minutes on it before adults got bored, but you could probably go a bit longer dealing with young kids.
I chose Legos specifically because they don’t have a ton of variables, and it’s very quick to hold up a piece and get told “no”, which I think is a big help here. You don’t want someone to spend 5 minutes drawing a picture only to discover they got it wrong, because that creates a big negative, a lot of frustration that you don’t want in a quick-and-basic exercise like this. Save frustration for the bigger challenges, when you want to illustrate the cost of failing at this skill :)
This exercise would mostly serve to prime the audience’s thinking in the right direction, and as a very mild “success spiral”. You would definitely need to lead-in to a more complex and challenging example, to keep the audience engaged
Action exercise:
Instructor provides a set of somewhat vague tasks to a few groups or individuals (“Draw me a tire swing” / “Write me a poem about fish” / “Tell me about [yourself | your selves]”). The instructor has a specific interpretation in mind, in advance (“An old tire from a dump truck, tied via blue-painted rope to hang horizontal to the ground, 3 feet from the ground, from a large branch of a willow tree” / “A haiku about salmon and how they are unpleasant when used as projectiles” / “Your favorite hobby, color, flavor of ice cream, but not physical characteristics or past job history”). These tasks are mixed among more specific tasks, whose initial description more precisely matches their intention (“Draw me a series of five overlapping lines that connect end-to-end, and form a five-pointed star”).
The groups are set loose to perform their tasks, and are able to ask for further details. The results are scored on proximity to the intended result and perhaps on speed.
Performed in rounds, it would help to pick out when one is speaking too abstractly about something that, on the surface, sounds simple enough (How much detail do you really need to draw a tire swing?!).
Possible Trigger: After a few rounds to get a feel for how it should work, break groups up into sub-groups, where they take turns providing and performing these minor tasks. Have those providing write down their intention up front, and the performer record any questions they ask for clarification, so that it can be compared with results. The intention, clarifying questions, and results can be used to reinforce the desire to be specific up front by scoring based on proximity of result to intention and also based on the number of clarifying questions needed to create the result (with the ideal being having an intention specific enough that fewer clarifying questions are needed to create a result with close proximity).
A narrower set of tasks that would require less setup: Have two sets of colored sticks (straws from a dollar store would suffice) that match each other in color, length and quantity. Group A arranges one set in a particular arrangement, out of sight of group B. Group A provides an initial description of the arrangement in as much detail as they feel is necessary. Group B attempts to recreate the arrangement with their own set. Group A gets a score for the similarity of the result of B to their own arrangement.
Group B is then able to ask clarifying questions, and adjust their arrangement as they seem fit. Upon satisfaction, they are scored based on their result’s similarity to group B’s initial arrangement. Only after group B has been scored should they be able to see group A’s initial arrangement. It would probably be handy to only allow a certain number of clarifying questions, perhaps X questions per round for N rounds of questioning with group B modifying their arrangement as needed between rounds.
I like the idea of “provide abstract instructions, and leave it up to the students to realize that this is too general, and that they need to ask for more information.”
I would say, however, that usually when you need more information, you’re aware of that need. In Eliezer’s example, Paul can automatically recognize that he needs more information, because he doesn’t have enough information for his own task.
The very simple example would be to split in to pairs: a describer and a picker. The describer is given a picture of the piece they need, and a quick description to read (print these ahead of time!): i.e. they might need a blue 2x8x1 block, but they’re told to ask for “a long block”. The picker then has to realize they don’t have sufficient information, and ask to clarify.
It’s teaching a VERY basic level of “realize I need more information, and then ask for it”—after the first example, every student will REALIZE what they need to be asking (size + color), so there’s minimal sense of discovery/novelty. I think you would only be able to spend 5-10 minutes on it before adults got bored, but you could probably go a bit longer dealing with young kids.
I chose Legos specifically because they don’t have a ton of variables, and it’s very quick to hold up a piece and get told “no”, which I think is a big help here. You don’t want someone to spend 5 minutes drawing a picture only to discover they got it wrong, because that creates a big negative, a lot of frustration that you don’t want in a quick-and-basic exercise like this. Save frustration for the bigger challenges, when you want to illustrate the cost of failing at this skill :)
This exercise would mostly serve to prime the audience’s thinking in the right direction, and as a very mild “success spiral”. You would definitely need to lead-in to a more complex and challenging example, to keep the audience engaged