Boomerangs

The Shads in their house groups were given a particularly vexing task: building a boomerang and marketing it. I’ll bet anything that all of us were thinking about the maxim, “a boomerang that doesn’t come back is just a stick”. Not only does it have to look and sound good, but it has to work: one of the criteria is that it has to be thrown outside a 10m radius – and come back.

House One seems to be particularly kamikaze; not only did they build a seven-foot structure (at least attempted to, it failed miserably), in the newspaper shelter contest, but they are using a boomerang design that is designed to snap in half at the smallest impacts. Fortunately, they’re building a few prototypes… So, I suppose they have several chances?

As for House Five, they seem to making good progress; they’ve finished the outline, done their basic ideas… But to the outsider, their boomerang might seem a bit eccentric. According to Georgina Neatby, there is fierce debate on whether their boomerang should feature Spongebob or something remarkably reminiscent of Batman.

In House Four, Nissen Huang states that their slogan is “You rang and we provide the boom.” What that means, we’re not quite sure, but that sure is catchy.

House Three was devastated by the loss of two valuable boomerangs; the first ended up in a tree… And the second also ended up in a tree, thanks to a somewhat bone-headed attempt to dislodge the first one with the second.

In all, we had fun, it was a great activity. Looking forward to the next group project!

Ninjas and Newspapers

At first I thought it was someone’s cell phone. It started off softly, and then grew louder. Whatever it was, it was certainly approaching quickly after interrupting the tentative conversation that had finally begun to emerge in our House groups.

I turned my head reluctantly, and just as the Kill Bill theme song became recognizable, a team of ninjas approached the group with vigour. It was rather unexpected. I recovered from my initial surprise to marvel at the impressive dance moves each ninja displayed and to speculate on who was who. Since it was the first day, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who failed to recognize the staff under their tricky disguises. Each black scarf was expertly wrapped so only their eyes were visible and their sleek black costumes were complete with ninja-type weapons (ie. broomsticks). Granted, I did spot what appeared to be a battle-axe. A few minutes later when the song finished, the well-choreographed routine seemed to degenerate and the strange group disappeared as quickly as it came.

Still slightly dazed, I turned my head from side to side – only to see four other groups of Shads already handing out papers from the unmarked boxes that had been set nearby. House 4, who would soon emerge as the strongest and wittiest of the houses, exchanged a quick look and then rushed to follow suit with the rest of the groups. We knew we had better get cracking. After all... this was our first test.

The instructions were to build a shelter. We had two materials: quite a lot of newspaper and one role of masking tape. No sweat, right? 45 minutes, two closed sides (one being a roof), and enough space for ten people. Well, let me tell you, it was not an easy task. Personally, I felt that the hardest part, besides agreeing on a design, was trying to learn everyone’s names well enough to call out and work as a team. That being said, everyone in the room was, I’m sure, able to see the potential that we all had when we worked together.

The results were masterpieces. As the final minute ran out, cheers and high-fives could be heard in the lobby of the ILC (Integrated Learning Centre). Each structure was vastly different from each other but, for the most part, they were stable enough to pass the 7 second test (both with and without occupants).

It was a great start to the month and everyone was really pleased with the end results. Blog updates should be coming fairly frequently now that it’s up and running.