Helping students develop critical thinking skills: Dodgeball in the library

• Critical thinking
• Teamwork
• Team building
• Planning
• Non-verbal communication skills
• Ethics

Who am I kidding? It’s Dodgeball in the library!

�Basically we’re going to transform this:

Into this:

For the purists out there—this is technically not dodgeball--students will chase each other around the maze of cubicles, but nonetheless it should be a lot of fun.

The Ball:
�

I'm working with Sara Fuchs on D-Ball and we're really looking forward to the library staff bonding match.

Yes, it is CeLIBration time again. Our annual welcome event for freshmen the Saturday before the Fall semester starts. Past CeLIBrations

I have to be honest-- I wasn’t really feeling it this year. Don’t get be wrong, we’ve had some great events over the years, but with the wedding and book deadline in September, my heart wasn’t into it. But then I looked at the line up and we have a lot of cool games. This might actually be our best one yet. I am totally in now.

• Dodgeball Tournament
• Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament (there are actually leagues: video)
• Speed Dating
• Poker (not one, not two, but three tournaments this time!)
• Team Trivia
• Project Runway
• DDR & Guitar Hero
• Pizza, Soda, Popcorn

That’s just a taste. Other activities we’re still pulling together include the student Improv group, a live band, student radio station DJ, board games, and a logic competition. Of course I’ll have a full recap later, but I am getting hyped for next weekend.

An interesting note—when this started many years ago it was all about the LAN Party concept—all about video games. We’ve evolved from that. There will still be some videos games, but that’s a very minor part of the attraction. Those appealed to a particular niche but we aim for�the whole pie, not just a piece.

What we’ve arrived at is that students enjoy interacting with each other in the physical world too—throwing balls around, laughing, playing cards, etc. A lot of librarians out there are geeked on gaming, but don’t forget about real world games as well.

Tug-of-War is kind of boring, but Tug-of-War in the library is novel. We’ve learned that we don’t need to rely on video games to get bodies in the building. Providing food, a festive social atmosphere, and some amusing activities is far more successful.

T-shirts and giveaways help too.

Comments

[Sarah]

This looks FUN!

[Amy]

This is so cool! Your library is so creative.

[Emily Lloyd]

Awesome! And that interesting note *was* very interesting--how cool that you all picked up on that.

[Frank]

OMG! This is pathetic! And just plain icky! Have you no dignity, or is this has your library really fallen into irrelevance?

[Frank]

OMG! This is pathetic! And just plain icky! Have you no dignity, or is this has your library really fallen into irrelevance?

[Brian Mathews]

@ “Frank” – IP trackers are a great tool!

Thanks for reading my blog. Sorry you found Dodge Ball to be so appalling. I guess UW- Madison doesn’t have any fun huh? What’s next, are you going to tell me that Georgia Tech’s Triple Option is a gimmick?

[Frank]

So you track anyone who doesn't shower you with praise in order to make childish taunts? You win - I'll not read your blog again.

[brian mathews]

Sir, I am not seeking praise-- only new ideas. Thank you for sharing yours. Trust me, I am my own worst critic.

I will be up in your area on April-- hope to meet you then. We can talk about the future of reference or how much my blog sucks.