Monday Trip 13.3.2017

This Monday Trip was started once more at the Spicheren building. Together we walked up to the Jegersberg were we separated into four groups. Only few of the Norwegians showed up this Monday. We were supposed to bring a tarp and rope besides the usual utensils we should always bring. However many let their tarps in hopes others would bring them, which is an example of social loafing. The organization group started with two running games to start the day and make sure everybody is warm enough. After that our group was confronted with the first task. We were supposed to build a shelter with our tarp and the surroundings in the forest and present it as if we wanted to sell it. Although the motivation for the Monday trips decreased with every single trip everybody seemed highly motivated. We decided to settle for a quite easy shelter with several nice features such as a bench, a bonfire and shelter against wind and water. The several groups were quite keen on presenting their shelters. Also the other groups stated to point out flaws of every group, which then had to defend their construction. It was a well-chosen task that increased our skills of shelter building and provided a lot of fun and laugher among the groups. After the first challenge we had a small lunch break. After that the second challenge was revealed. The four groups were assigned to different areas. Two groups shared one area. The task was to hide one team member within and after a certain time the rest of the team had to look in the other area and find the two hidden students. The groups whose person was found last would win the competition. Walking through the forest our group took along time to find a hiding spot. After a while we decided that our person should hide in a tree because we rarely looked up waling through the forest. However to fool all the other groups we decided to hide some rocks under a tarp and put some snow and leaves on the top. After all the groups were done hiding their person we started looking for the other group’s people. We quickly discovered them and ended up winning the competition and helping the others finding our hiding place. After that we played chain catching together and walked back to Spicheren.

In summary it was a well organized trip with diverse tasks compared to the other Monday trips which highly motivated the groups through the day and provided a lot of fun.

Latané, B., Williams, K. D. & Harkins, S. (1979). Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology