Lunar Survival

Date:  (Week 4)
Venue: BFEI | Room 108
Class:  WDM
Topic:  Lunar Survival

Lunar Survival Exercise

Fun Friday: Space Survival Exercise

Today's class exercise was interesting and full of fun. The Lunar Survival exercise is a team building exercise that involves collaboration, problem solving and creative teamwork. 

The Challenge 

As per the brief, we were to think of ourselves as members of a space crew originally scheduled to land on the moon but due to mechanical difficulties, our space ship was forced to land at a spot some 200 miles from the intended point. 

During reentry and landing, much of the equipment aboard was damaged and, since survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the 200-mile trip.

Below are listed the 15 items left intact and undamaged after landing. Our task is to rank order them in terms of their importance for our crew in allowing them to reach the rendezvous point. To rank them in order, we have to place the number 1 by the most important item, the number 2 by the second most important, and so on through number 15 for the least important. 

Lunar Survival Items 

1. Box of matches
2. Food concentrate
3. 50 feet of nylon rope 
4. Parachute silk 
5. Portable heating unit 
6. Two .45 caliber pistols 
7. One case of dehydrated milk
8. Two 100 lb. tanks of oxygen
9. Stellar map
10. Self-inflating life raft
11. Magnetic compass 
12. 20 liters of water 
13. Signal flares 
14. First aid kit, including injection needle 
15. Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter

The Purpose

The Lunar Survival challenge is a team building that involves collaboration, problem solving, and creative teamwork. 

Working alone, we need to individually identify the ranking of the resources on our own for 10/15 minutes, then in a small group, we need to think and pair share in a small group for another 15 minutes.  Then we will share our experiences.

Commentary

The survival exercise requires individual to prioritise the lunar survival items in rank order, once we have done this and record our individual votes on the the score-sheet, we then formed a group of comprising Gavin, Robert, Jo'Art, Ahmad and Myself to discuss our answers together to learn from the collective wisdom of the group in the room.

We discussed as a group to figure out how to reach decision about the ranking, we had differences in ranking order initially but we resolved differences through a collective vote and discussion , huge contribution from Gavin and Robert.

Afterwards, each participant in the group compute the individual and group scores on the score-sheet

and then compare it with the expert answer.

Scoring:

To calculate our score, for each item, mark the number of points that we score differs from the

expert ranking, then add up all the points. Disregard plus or minus differences. The lower the total, the better your score.

0 - 25 excellent

26 - 32 good

33 - 45 average

46 - 55 fair

56 - 70 poor -- suggests use of Earth-bound logic

71 - 112 very poor – you’re one of the casualties of the space program! Ha ha ha ha!!!

Learning Outcome

What did you think about the exercise?

The activity is a good example on the importance of decision making in a critical situation and how synergy in a team aids the process.  It activity really emphasis the essence of creativity, problem solving, decision making, leadership, team work where a priority is very essential..

How did you work as a team? What happened ?

My team comprised of Gavin, Robert, Jo'Art, Ahmad and Myself.

Individual in the team first have to prioritise the lunar survival items in rank order, once we have done this and we recorded our individual votes on the the score-sheet, we then discussed our answers together to learn from the collective wisdom of the team. 

We had few differences in ranking order initially but we resolved differences through a collective vote and further discussion, huge contribution from Gavin and Robert.

Afterwards, the group compare the individual and the team scores on the score-sheet against the NASA expert score the teacher provided on the board and we have the team filled these in.

Later on, we have each member of the team compute individual and the team scores on the score-sheet and finally all the gains and looses in score ranking and we can see how the collective wisdom of the team improved the scores for us.

Did your answers change when you consulted as a group and why?

Yes, we had a bit of reflection of our choices in the ranking as were a bit divided over the rank allocation for signal flares, solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter and Self-inflating life raft. We had further discussion to reach a consensus.

What would you do differently if you were to repeat the exercise?

If I had the opportunity again, I would first plan and map out my plan, have a draft of the plan, reflect on it before actually making final decision

What did you learn about team work 

It can be more creative while working in a team, the synergy that is built for problem solving is great, decision making and consultation can improve team performance, leadership qualities that can developed in a team work environment cannot be under estimated. You really don't know until when you are really involved in some projects, then the qualities shines.