Activities and Games

Makeathons benefit from the inclusion of a series of games and fun tasks.

One of the best ways to get teams of students working together is to create challenges, games and activities for them to work on. These can be mini-goals along the way to the finalisation of their overall Makeathon challenge, or they can be adapted so that they form the entire Makeathon. One example of this, called ‘Save Humanity!’, is a game that shapes the whole Makeathon.

The types of games that you might want to include as part of your Makeathon could include brainstorming activities, design games and prototyping challenges. We will outline some of these on the next pages, and give you the instructions for our own Save Humanity! Makeathon game.

Always make sure your games and activities have clear instructions, time limits, a research component and a reporting or presenting aspect, so that your Sheriff, Scribe, Mayor, Jester and Professor all have specific things to do along the way. If they need technical assistance, they can always consult the Wizard.

Consider giving each team two WIZARD cards that they can redeem throughout the Makeathon for specific technical help (see Group Roles) so that they are not always reliant on that assistance, but bring it in only when needed. Groups might also exchange WIZARD cards for peer assistance or other favours.