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I have watched the Minute to Win It! program for a couple of years now and have often thought, “I bet there is a way to include these activities in my classroom as both team building/problem solving activities as well as Science.” The materials are everyday items and many could be used more than once. I can’t believe I would be the first person to think of this, so am curious, has anybody already used any of these and identified the Science. I am sure Bernoulli’s principle, levers, Newton’s Laws, apply to many. http://www.nbc.com/minute-to-win-it/how-to/ takes you to a list of games A-Z. The nice part of this site is there is not only a list of materials and basic procedures to follow to play the game, but there is also a video for many so you can see how the challenge is done. Two games have my attention right off the bat. One is “Spoon Frog”, http://www.nbc.com/minute-to-win-it/how-to/episode-234/spoon-frog-1/ the other “Mad Dog,” http://www.nbc.com/minute-to-win-it/how-to/episode-233/mad-dog/ One of the reasons I listed both of the direct links is you will notice on the right hand side about halfway down, you will see the “Challenge Archives.” This is an easy to access list of many of the games. I would be interested to see how others might incorporate these activities in your classrooms.

Sandy, I do use these games in my class and my students LOVE them! I've been using them for the past three years in my 6th grade Earth Science class as part of my enrichment/enhancement (E squared) day. This is the day after a test when students who score 80% or better follow the enrichment path and play the Minute to Win It games. The rest of the students work with me on enhancement. Those who scored 70-80% can work on test corrections while those earning less than 70% get a review lesson and time to work in small groups to talk about errors/misconceptions. This last group then has the opportunity to retake the test for up to 80%. As for the games, since I've been using them with 6th graders and they don't yet know the physics behind the activities, I just them to discover a "trick" or pattern that seems to recur in the successful attempts. It is wonderful to hear their thinking! This year I will also be teaching some 8th grade physical science so when I include some of the activities in labs, they'll have great background knowledge. An added bonus to using the games is that after the second E squared day each year, my group for enhancement is very small because they tell me they want to play the games so they came prepared for the test. I highly recommend incorporating the games. A few times, I've had parents come in to monitor so it doesn't get to crazy with all the game stations set out.

I had never thought of making those connections, but I think that is a great idea.  I think that is an excellent way to bring moving around and entertainment for the students as they learn.  Very neat! I plan use these ideas when I become a teacher.

Wow, what a great idea! I have never actually made the connection between the two, I think that would be a great way to review content as well! I will definitely keep this in mind when creating reviews! This sounds fun. 

I found these. http://www.gk12.iastate.edu/classroom_projects/documents/MinutetoWinItPresentation_0711Final.pdf