Broken Circles, Broken Squares (Stanford Group Work Activity)

One of the first activities I have my students do every year in science class is this Broken Circles activity from Stanford (I call mine the circle challenge). Instructions are included in the PDF documents, but I will give a brief overview below.

Rules of Circle Challenge 

• You may not talk. There must be total silence at all times. 

• Do not point or use your body to send signals to the rest of your group members. 

• You must put together your own circle. You are not allowed to place a puzzle piece in another person’s circle. 

• This activity is about giving, not taking. Do not take a piece from another group member. However, you can give others in your group one of your puzzle pieces. Be clear about which group member you are giving your piece to. Hand the piece to the group member or place it near the other pieces the group member already has. (Do not place a piece in a group member’s circle.) 

• You may not show other group members how to put a circle together or put their circles together for them.

I usually have my students in groups of 4, but sometimes have absent student or an odd number so I usually try to make up a group of 3 and 5 in case I have an odd number of students as a back up.

For a group of 4 you need to print parts: 

• Print parts labeled 1-4 (broken-circles -1-A, broken-circles -2-A, etc.)

• Parts Labeled with A go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with B go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with C go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with D go in the same envelope

• Part 3-C-DEF does in envelope D

For a group of three

• Print parts labeled 1-3 (broken-circles -1-A, broken-circles -2-A, etc.)

• Parts Labeled with A go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with B go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with C go in the same envelope

• Part 3-C-DEF does in envelope C

For a group of five

• Print parts labeled 1-5 (broken-circles -1-A, broken-circles -2-A, etc.)

• Parts Labeled with A go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with B go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with C go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with D go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with E go in the same envelope

• Part 3-C-DEF does in envelope E

For a group of Six

• Print all parts

• Parts Labeled with A go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with B go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with C go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with D go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with E go in the same envelope

• Parts labeled with F go in the same envelope

• Part 3-C-DEF does in envelope F

Print in your favorite filament, I used PLA, 5% gyroid infill because I like how it looks