Airplane Challenge Training Energisers

When your delegates are looking  sleepy or tired, an energiser can be used to get them moving and to give them more enthusiasm.

Short games can be used to help people think through issues and can help to address problems that people may encounter when they are working together. Games can also help people to think creatively and laterally.

I use games for a variety of different reasons, including :-

•        helping delegates to get to know each other better,
•        increasing energy or enthusiasm levels for sessions,
•        encouraging team building
•        or making people think about a specific issue as a group.

Energisers re-ignite the delegates oomph and
 the trainer's vigour for the next session 

The Air plane Challenge
Materials:
Each team needs 1 sheet of flip chart Paper
Some flip chart pens
reel of masking tape

Team Task:
Time : 10 minutes total : 8 minutes to design build and test 2 minute test in competition

To produce a paper plane using the whole sheet of flip chart paper
It is required to fly straight.
Marks will be awarded for aesthetic design
The planes will be thrown from a standing line
The plane is required to fly straight ( Your plane must fly and land within strict parameters of the test run way) 
If your plane lands outside the runway your team will  be disqualified
Marks will be given for  best distance 

A team of delegates work on the
aesthetics of their flip chart paper plane

Delegates are so creative. This team even created
team badges to match that on their plane's logo

Get the teams to present
 and explain their designs

This team spontaneously presented
the merits of their design to rival teams

Presenting the design to a judge

Delegate throwing team's plane trying
to keep it between the runway strips

Flying high at start (see top of photo) but where will it land ?

Tailor's Measuring Tapes make 

a colourful addition to the runway

Test runway made of 2" strips of masking tape.
Best to use a corridor or wide open space rather ha n a training room.
Measuring tapes use for marking the impact point of each teams plane

Should you need a rational explanation for energisers- Here's the Science bit !

 

or Why do we feel the need  of a siesta after lunch ?

Source:  05 June 2006   NewScientist.

The mystery of why we often feel sleepy after eating a big meal may finally have been resolved. Researchers have discovered that high blood glucose levels, similar to those after eating a big meal, can switch off the brain cells that normally keep us awake and alert.

The findings make evolutionary sense since sleepiness could be the body’s way of telling us to relax and conserve energy once we have found and eaten our food, says Denis Burdakov of the University of Manchester, UK, who led the research.

“It has been known for a while that people and animals can become sleepy and less active after a meal, but the brain signals responsible for this were poorly understood,” he says.

Burdakov’s team studied a group of brain cells called orexin neurons, which are found in the hypothalamus and produce proteins called orexins that are essential for maintaining normal wakefulness in humans. These neurons are less active at night and when they malfunction this can lead to narcolepsy, where sufferers cannot stay awake.

Firing rate

Previously, researchers have shown that orexin neurons can be inhibited by glucose, but it was not known how sensitive they were. Burdakov’s team exposed orexin neurons to subtle changes in glucose levels similar to those that occur in the blood during daily cycles of eating and hunger, then measured their firing rate.

“What we discovered is the activity of the neurons can be turned off by minute elevations in glucose associated with normal meals,” says Burdakov. The glucose is thought to act on potassium ion channels in the neurons’ membrane.

He believes this could explain why we naturally feel sleepy after a meal and also why it can be difficult to sleep when we are hungry, since the activity of the neurons would be higher when there is less glucose in the blood.

“We think orexin neurons make sure that we are awake and alert when hungry, in order to ensure optimal food-seeking,” Burdakov says. He adds that it makes evolutionary sense for animals to turn off their wakefulness and conserve energy once they have eaten their food, since it could be risky or wasteful to expend too much energy looking for more food.

Journal reference: Neuron (vol 50, p 711)