Sage’s Instant Challenges

Preparation:
You will need the following materials:

• 1 golf ball
• 1 tennis ball
• 3 cardboard tubes
• 1 roll of duct tape
• 3 rubber bands
• 3 disposable plates

Challenge:
What games do you play for fun? Is there equipment to be used? Do you keep score? People all of the world play sports and games for fun. Today you’ll be making a game of your own.

Your challenge will be to make the rules for a game that your team will play. You can make any equipment you need from the materials provided. Your game should have some goal to be accomplished. You will present your game by playing it in the time provided, you may have commentary or description while you are playing.

You will have 5 minutes to think and plan and 5 minutes to play.

Scoring:
1 to 10 points for teamwork
1 to 10 points for the creativity of the goal of your game
1 to 10 points for the use of props and equipment
1 to 20 points for the quality of the presentation

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Preparation:
You will need the following materials:

• 5 golf balls
• 5 tennis balls
• 3 cardboard tubes
• 1 roll of duct tape
• 3 rubber bands
• 4 pieces of paper
• 3 plastic straws
• 3 disposable bowls

Challenge:
How can you tell when something is different? How can you tell if something is the same? Your team will be building a device that can tell golf balls from tennis balls. Your device must have one place to put balls in, and place tennis balls and golf balls so that no balls of different types are touching.

You will have 6 minutes to work. When your time is up, an appraiser will place the balls in a random order into the device. You will need to identify what location will hold golf balls and what location will hold tennis balls before the first ball enters the device. Only one ball will be placed into the device at a time, if there is still a ball in the device no more will be added. Your team will not be able to interact with your device during this phase.

Scoring:
1 to 10 points for teamwork
2 points for each tennis ball correctly sorted
2 points for each golf ball correctly sorted
1 to 20 points for the design and creativity of the device.

Preparation:
You will need the following materials:

• 10 sticky mailing labels
• 5 bendy straws
• 3 sheets of paper
• 1 pipe cleaner
• 2 rubber bands

Challenge:
Communication is one of the biggest challenges we face. How do we speak to someone who lives far away? How do we talk to someone who doesn’t speak our language? Today your team will have to communicate using a device you design. You will need to split your team into two groups: one group will be the senders, one group will be the receivers. You can work together during your planning time, but during the communication time the groups will be separate.
You will need to communicate a word from the following list from the senders to the receivers using only the device you design. The words you will need to be able to communicate are:

• Hello
• Goodbye
• Sit
• Stand
• Sun
• Moon

When the communication time starts, the senders will be able to use their device (without adding or removing parts) while the receivers face away from the device. The senders must use their device, then turn around. Once the senders turn around, the receivers will be able to view the device (but not touch it). Based on looking at the device, the receivers must guess what word is being communicated. After they guess, the cycle starts again with a different word to communicate. You will have to communicate 3 words. You will have 6 minutes to design and 4 minutes to communicate your words.

Scoring:
1 to 10 points for teamwork
1 or 5 points for the first word communicated
1 or 5 points for the second word communicated
1 or 5 points for the third word communicated
1 to 25 points for the creativity and design of the communications device
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Preparation:
You will need the following materials:

• 1 Newspaper
• 3 Cardboard Tubes (preferably paper towel size, but anything will work)
• 1 Roll of tape
• 3 Straws
• 24 Inches of string
• 1 Pair of Scissors (cannot be modified during the challenge)

Challenge:
When someone makes a big deal of something small, we might say they’re “making a mountain out of a molehill.” Today your team will be doing just that! You must create a prop that changes size, and use it in a performance where somebody makes a big deal out of something that shouldn’t be important. Your prop must grow noticeably, and it’s growth should have some effect on the performance. The prop must start the performance at normal size, grow to a larger size, and return to it’s original size over the course of the performance. The growth may be done by a team member, but the prop must be able to return to it’s normal size by the end of the performance. Pieces may not be added to the prop (everything used in growing must be connected).

Scoring:
1 to 10 points for teamwork
0 or 10 points for the prop changing size and returning to it’s original size
1 to 10 points for creativity of the prop and it’s use in the performance
1 to 20 points for creativity and quality the performance
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Preperation:
None. No materials needed.

Challenge:
Your team will be presenting a case before a judge, but unlike a normal case you will be presenting both sides of the case! At least one member of your team should be arguing each side of the case. The other team members may be anybody else in the courtroom: witnesses, other attorneys, jurors, or anything else you can think of.

At any time during the presentation, anybody may say “Objection!” and immediately change any fact just stated. Once something is stated in an objection, it cannot be changed again (no objecting to objections).

You will have 4 minutes to think and 6 minutes to present.

Scoring:
1 to 10 points for teamwork
1 to 10 points for the creativity of the court case presented
1 to 20 points for the use of objections to enhance the performance.
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