An activity to learn about risk

Tricky Tower is a great activity for training learners how to take risks, persist with a challenge, and develop their own ideas in a team. Through this exercise, learners will also develop finger and hand strength (also known as fine motor development).

What you need

One set of six bricks. Although it’s also useful to have some extra sets available.

How to play

Start by asking learners to build a tower on their own by stacking the bricks vertically, short end to short end, using one hand.

Next, pair up the learners and challenge them to create the tallest tower in the group, using only one hand. The learners will find that standing the bricks up makes it more likely to fall.

End the activity by asking the teams to create the tallest tower in just two minutes using their non-dominant hand. This requires them to balance the desire for adding height with the risk of the tower falling.

Key questions/reflections for learners

How did you reach agreement on how to build?

Why do you need to talk before you work?

Whose ideas did you use and why?

How did you reach agreement on when to stop building (in the final round)?

What did you learn about managing risk in a team?

Scale up/down

Scale up, task the learners with building the tallest tower using only their elbows and wrists.

If you want to make the activity a bit easier, let learners use both hands.