Working in Groups

Since the beginning of this summer the kids in the Imagination and Innovation camps have been building their projects in groups. This is helpful really in getting kids to work with one another and cuts down on material usage and space. Throughout the summer though I have been really interested in how the kids breakdown and establish certain roles on their own within groups. Not entirely surprising is that a lot of the groups have chosen a leader that would help guide the group through the week. This is common but when it happens we like to keep an eye on the group just to make sure the leader doesn’t start determining too much at the expense of other more shy campers.

Other groups set certain roles for each member without ever explicitly discussing it. One of the kids might be the Scratch specialist while another would do the bulk of the cutting and drilling and one might be the lead at testing and adjusting the final piece. This system, as well as the one where everyone does a bit of everything seems to work the best but what’s most interesting to me is that when I talk to the kids about their roles they seem to have no idea that they were in a specific position.

When working your position is typically made abundantly clear and you have a good idea of your place in that particular system. However, kids manage to mimic a lot of those relationships without having, necessarily a boss, or a coordinator. I think that the way they break apart responsibility, although not always a success, is really interesting. It feels more fluid than most team oriented tasks that I see or do as an adult. I think it’s awesome that kids can assign and change roles quickly and that they can assess how to best create their project really without ever having a sit down meeting and discussing it. It’s just one thing among many that although subtle has surprised me that kids are really creative and intelligent despite age or experience.