Duration: 30 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Flexibility
- Critical thinking
Brief Description:
Teams evaluate what happened, exchange one tip with another team, and choose one change to try.
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
- Develops flexibility by accepting feedback and adjusting direction
- Strengthens critical thinking by selecting the most useful suggestion based on evidence
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
As a result of this activity, students (will be able to/understand/do …):
- Critical thinking: name one cause of failure using evidence (“base uneven,” “weak corners”).
- Flexibility: choose one peer suggestion and explain why it fits their problem.
- Resilience: speak about mistakes as learning (not blame).
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Peer review and improvement cycle (observe → evaluate → revise)
- Use clear reasoning and evidence in discussion.
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- Sticky notes
- Mid-trial reflection prompts sheet.
Preparation notes
- Pre-assign pairing partners so snowball takes 2 minutes, not 10.
- Provide sentence stem for feedback: “Try ___ because ___.”
Guided Questions
- “What is one thing you want to improve?”
- “What suggestion did the other team give you?”
- “Which one change will you test next?”
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- “Which feedback felt most helpful and why?”
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- Challenge: Teams copy feedback without thinking.
- Tip: Require the “because” sentence before they rebuild.
- Challenge: Too many suggestions overwhelm the team.
- Tip: “Pick one change only” rule for Trial 2.