The OLS Bellevue College (OLSBC) Intro to Communication course had a fun, hands-on experiment this quarter to learn about the importance of communication. The Bellevue College HR team joined them one day to host a Play Doh Experiment with our students.
To start, students learned the theory of the importance of teamwork and how collaboration affects projects—both those in college and projects they might be tasked with for work in the future. Students then had to put the theory into practice by collaboratively creating a human from Play Doh, but with some rules:
Each student was tasked with creating a body part with Play Doh, but they had to keep their part secret from everyone else. They were also instructed to not talk to anyone around them while they created it. Little did students know, they were collaboratively creating a human form. Once everyone’s individual piece was created, they had to put them together. The silliness ensued, as students pieced together a Play Doh human, with a final result that would have made Picasso proud.
Students were quick to notice how differently the human could have turned out if they had been communicated to about the plan and each person’s part. “Well, if I would have known what the end goal would be I would have created my piece differently,” said one student. Another reflected, “I thought I was the only one with that part, so I made it my way, but it’s too different from the other one that was made. It just doesn’t work together.”
For the second-round students were encouraged to talk, collaborate, and work together —and the results were astoundingly different. Students who were tasked with the same body parts teamed up to make similar sized pieces, but then they started looking around realizing that collaboration with just one other person on such a big project was not enough. They realized they needed to work with the students creating the parts that connected to theirs as well.
“How can we all decide the size since they are all too different still?” stated one student. Another student had a solution: “We need to know what size the head is first.” In agreement they began building together on the main table instead of at their seats. This made all the difference, with comments made along the way like, “That’s still a bit big. Can you make it smaller?” and “Oh, that won’t look right if it’s pointed that way. Let me change it.”
Students walked away with a relevant, hands-on experience of the importance of collaboration and teamwork.
About OLS Bellevue College
Occupational & Life Skills Bellevue College is an associate degree program for students with learning disabilities. In our uniquely supportive skills-based program, students apply academic knowledge through community activities, service learning and social experiences. Students identify a career pathway, gain marketable, workplace-ready competencies, develop better interpersonal skills and complete an internship in alignment with their career goals.
Learn more about our program at an upcoming Information Session, open to all prospective students, family members/guardians, educators, counselors and other service providers. Come learn why OLS Bellevue College is one of the best colleges for students with learning disabilities.
Last Updated December 19, 2024