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
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