My science colleague is organizing our middle school’s annual Science and Engineering Fair. All middle school students must participate and have been partnered up in pairs (by area of interest) to complete the project together. The project is daunting for our students, but some find the most challenging aspect of the fair is the peer collaboration. 

To ease this anxiety, I developed a quick advisory activity for students. Basically, students are presented with common group-project problems (one partner doing more work than the other, different expectations, etc.) and then discussing in groups how a partnership facing one of these dilemmas can be successful AND still remain friends/friendly with each other. It sparked some great conversations.

You can find the activity outline here. 

Please feel free to use this activity as is, or make any changes you feel are necessary to best meet your particular needs. Don’t be afraid to share your changes with me – I am always looking for ways to improve my practice!

Ed X!