February 2, 2021 Reflection

 In today's class, we did a creativity activity, where you try to build the highest stool for a marshmallow made from spaghetti. Our group came in 2nd with an hourglass-shaped tower. After doing the activity, we were shown research done by several people showing that younger kids were more successful in the challenge. Business people or people who major in business seemed to have the most trouble in building the tower. In addition, when there is a prize to be fought for, I learned that more people would fail. We also learned that from Mr. Paterson's experience, Japanese people had the most trouble making a standing tower. 

One interesting thing about this activity is that it trains more than just creativity. I have done this experiment in elementary school but was done with the purpose of team building. The goal was to be able to communicate with fellow classmates and not, to think outside of the box. Therefore, it was interesting when we were told that we were allowed to ask for more materials and look at our competitors. We are often trapped inside an idea where rules are made to be followed without question, but this activity opened my eyes to challenging the rule itself.