Lesson #T3: Explore Challenges & LeadTime:50 minutes

Overview

This lesson builds upon the leadership & thriving skills introduced in “Be All You Can Be!” Young people begin by watching a video clip on leadership. After reflecting on the leadership qualities displayed, young people break into small groups to do an “egg drop team challenge”.

This is an opportunity for youth to develop teamwork, problem-solving, communication & goal management skills. The facilitator will be able to practice giving growth mindset praise, by noting youth effort, trying different strategies and seeking help.

Subsequently, young people review a list of leadership qualities. As a group, they discuss which characteristics they practiced or saw their peers use in the egg drop activity. Independently, young people reflect on their personal strengths and areas for growth when it comes to leadership skills.

Objectives

By participating in this lesson, young people will:

  1. Learna broad array of leadership qualities.
  2. Practice leadership skills to grow the reach for full potential

Anchor Vocabulary

  • Vision— used in the context of a vivid mental image of the future.
  • Status Quo— existing state of affairs.
  • Optimism— hopefulness and confidence about the future.

There are many skills that make up leadership. The leadership video highlights these concepts and words:

  • Vision Knowledge: Setting a direction for others to head.
  • Courage: The tenacity & fervor to challenge and fix what isn’t right.
  • Heart: The passion to encourage the enthusiastic efforts of others.
  • Curiosity: Seeks different viewpoints and creative thought.

Materials & Media

  • DVD clip:“You Can Change the World?” which highlights characteristics of leadership.
  • 1 egg, 20 plastic straws & 30 inches of masking tape for EACH group of 3-4 young people
  • Several additional eggs (back-up)

*For less mess, eggs can be hard-boiled ahead of time and/or dropped into a box or on a tarp.

  • Leadership Qualities Checklist(adapted from Mariam G. MacGregor’s Everyday Leadership).
  • Thriving Wheel. (Use as reference for highlighting leadership qualities, though with care. Too many frameworks clutter the impact. The checklist is more detailed and specific for making the point.)

Lesson Outline / Lesson Description
ENROLL
(2 min) / Welcome
Quote highlights today’s subject / Build relationships with young people as they walk in the door.
Quote written on a board or flipchart or introduced in a way appropriate for the setting.
Today’s Quote:“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
–John Quincy Adams, former U.S. President
LEARN & LABEL
(2 min) / Why is leadership important? / Introduce why leadership is important.
Say:
  • How many of you have complained about things you wish you could change? Do you ever feel upset that you don’t know how or feel confident enough to change them? Well, learning how to lead will help your voice be heard. Learning how to lead will help you achieve your dreams.
  • Learning to lead doesn’t just mean being famous such as a President. Leadership isn’t just for a few people in high positions. Those who do well in life are exercising leadership skills every day.
  • When you practice leadership, you learn about yourself and you grow your potential to contribute to the world.

EXPERIENCE
(5 min) / Video: “You Can Change the World?”
Generate leadership characteristics. / Show video. After the video clip, encourage young people to share out the different qualities of leadership they recognized in the video.
Say:
  • What leadership qualities did you see?

EXPERIENCE
(28 min)
LEARN & LABEL / Egg Drop
(20 min)
Process Experience
(8 min) / Egg Drop Team Challenge
Say:
  • Now let’s do a fun activity where we can practice some leadership skills. It’s called the Egg Drop.
  • For this activity, break into groups of 3 (or 4). The challenge is to work collaboratively as a team and think creatively to design a contraption to protect an egg in a 6-foot fall. The group whose egg survives the fall intact is the winner. If more than one survives, these groups will drop their egg from a greater height.
Say:
  • What are someof these leadership skills you could practice during the egg drop? (e.g. Social Skills (listening & communication), Persistent Resourcefulness (finding creative solutions & showing continued effort) & Character (moral compass in following rules and not cheating.)
Young people begin building their contraption. Each team can only use 20 plastic straws and 30 inches of masking tape, and have 10 minutes to complete their creations before the drop. No additional materials are allowed.
When it is time to drop:
  1. Each group will announce its name and describe its creation, then drop the egg.
  2. After dropping from 6 feet, if more than one group remains, drop from greater heights until only one egg remains.
  3. The last group with a whole egg wins.
When done, congratulate the winning team and commend all young people for their effort and creativity.
Say:
  • What happened?:What thriving & leadership skills were used by your team?
  • So What?:What were challenges your team had in working together? (Don’t name names)
  • Now What?:What skills would be helpful to develop to improve your work as a team?

DEMONSTRATE & REVIEW
(10 min) / Leadership Qualities:
Small Group Debate
Leadership Qualities: Different leadership actions for different circumstances / Leadership Qualities
Small Group debate about top 3 qualities seen.
Say:
  • We’ll be doing lots of different teamwork activities together where you’ll have opportunities to show group leadership. I am handing out a checklist that has different examples of leadership qualities.
  • Form small groups andread the list together. As you read the list, think about which leadership qualities you saw or used in the Egg Drop today or the Trust Walk in another session.
  • You’ll have 2 minutes to review the list and circle the top threequalities you saw or used.
Facilitator reviews list and asks young people to raise their hands when the action called is one that they circled. Facilitator tracks results and shares out which three actions got ranked the most.
Say:
  • Why do you think these were circled most?
  • What do these top ranked actions tell you about your expectations for your leaders?
  • What would happen if no one in a group thought “explaining each person’s role in the project” was important?
  • What would happen if everyone ranks “leader doesn’t make it a big issue when someone makes a mistake”? Would the type of mistake matter? (e.g., mechanic causes airplane engine to stop in flight.)
Facilitator shares that we need different kinds of leadership actions for different circumstances (e.g., a response to a fire versus a brainstorming where you want to unleash creativity) and that there different leadership strengths.
CELEBRATE
(3 min) / Reflection in Personal Journal.
(1 min)
Shout-Outs
(2 min) / Facilitator asks young people to journal in their binders
Say:
  • In thinking about the leadership skills you observed or learned about today, what are leadership qualities you want to develop more?
Facilitator closes with Shout-Outs. Anyone can shout out: “I appreciate you” or “I want to acknowledge you” and name a peer. Everyone claps one clap. Run the exercise very fast. This exercise is great for team-building and ends the session on a high note.

Options:

  • Egg Drops can be made more challenging if teams are given money to budget for buying different supplies. Supplies could include bigger or thinner straws, markers to decorate eggs and rubber bands. Each team has to agree on what to purchase.
  • Reflection question could be assigned for home.
  • Journal: Young peoplemight answer one or more of these questions:

1)What leadership actions would be easy for you? …What actions would be hard for you?

2)I admire______because s/he does this leadership action.

3)One leadership action I want to grow is…..[1]

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Last Updated: 5/28/12T3: Exploring Challenges & Lead

[1]Developed by Thrive Foundation for Youth. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommerial-Share Alike 3.0. U.S. License. 2010. This document can be shared and adapted by users for educational, non-commercial purposes.