Death Swamp and Diagram
At the beginning of the year, Ms Aponte split us into groups, and introduced a project called "The Death Swamp." As a group, we had to work out a way to get across the imaginary swamp. This task took some strength, choordination, & thinking outside of the box.
Tommy Lasorda once said, “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies
in a person’s determination.” In other words someone who has determination can make anything possible,
and a person who has no determination make things impossible.
It relates to “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Conell, because if
Rainsford, the protagonist had no determination, it would have been impossible
to cross DeathSwamp. He would have been eaten by the dogs, or killed by General Zaroff.
My group had to use teamwork, communication, and thinking outside of the box to
complete our activity, as a class. Our activity was a team challenge, that
required the teams to get across “DeathSwamp”, an imaginary quicksand
swamp.
In the DeathSwamp activity there were several
objectives that we had to accomplish. My group consisted of Vanessa, David,
Joanne, Assyria, Elvin, Rianna, and Erick. My group had to get across the swamp using five 2x4 pieces of wood,
and one length of rope. We had to place the five 2x4 pieces of wood on seven blocks
of cinder. We had to pretend as if we were getting chased by General Zaroff,
Ivan and the General’s dogs, which added to the tension. The rules were that we
could not drop any pieces of equipment, or let them touch the floor; along with
no one from our team can fall into the swamp.
In order to complete the goal, we had several steps to take. First we had to place the first
of the five 2x4 horizontally across 2 of the cinderblocks.
Second, in the middle of the first of the five planks, we have to place
the second plank. After we place the second plank in the middle of the first one, we have to place the third
plank at the cinderblock that meets up with the second plank. Then we place the
fourth plank diagonally across to another cinderblock. Afterwards my group
placed the last plank directly in the middle of the fourth plank, going to the
cinderblock on a diagonal slant. Lastly, David takes the second plank and we all
pass it on to the last step, putting the plank from where the fifth ends to the
last cinderblock, so we can get across and finish.
In my group, The Furious Seven, I played a role as a helper and I waited for direction from
Vanessa. Most of the time I stood there on a plank in the way of my other team
mates. The outcome of my group is
that we failed at getting across Death Swamp.
My group always crumbled at the end and always dropped the wood, causing us to loose.
Our plan was awesome, but we didn’t have enough strength and /or we all couldn’t really
work together correctly. My team could not come together, I don’t think we were
very comfortable with each other and that prevented us from completing the
task. In the end the only team that made it across was team #3,
the only reason why they made it over was because they had a lot of strength.