Name______

NASA Decision Making

Ranking Sheet

Instructions:

You are a member of a space crew originally scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. Due to mechanical difficulties; however, your ship was forced to land at a spot some 200 miles from the rendezvous point. During re-entry and landing much of the equipment aboard was damaged and, since survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the 200-mile trip.

Below arelisted the 15 items left intact and undamaged after landing. Your task is torank order them in terms of their importance for your crew in allowing themto reach the rendezvous point.

Place the number 1 by the most important item,the number 2 by the second most important, and so on through number 15 forthe least important.

GroupAnswersDifference in

RankingRankingRanking

Box of matches ______

Food concentrate______

50 feet of nylon rope ______

Parachute silk ______

Portable heating unit ______

Two .45 caliber pistols ______

One case of dehydrated milk ______

Two 100 lb. tanks of oxygen ______

Stellar map ______

Self-inflating life raft ______

Magnetic compass ______

20 liters of water ______

Signal flares ______

First aid kit, including injection needle ______

Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter ______

______Total

Debrief Questions:

  1. Group points vs. Class points – Which was better? Why do you think that is so?
  1. How were decisions made?
  1. Who influenced the decisions and how?
  1. How could better decisions have been made?
  1. Did people listen to each other? If not, why not?
  1. What roles did group members adopt?
  1. How was conflict managed?
  1. What kinds of behavior helped and hindered the group?
  1. How did people feel about the decisions?
  1. How satisfied was each person with the decision (ask each participant to rate his/her satisfaction out of 10, then obtain a group average and compare/discuss with other groups’ satisfaction levels)
  1. What have you learned about how your group worked together?
  1. How would you do the activity differently if you were asked to do it again?
  1. What situations at work/home/school do you think are like this exercise?