Death swamp essay
![](http://www.weebly.com/weebly/images/file_icons/xls.png)
death_swamp_picture.pptx | |
File Size: | 1944 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
- Philip Cepeda
Mrs. Aponte
English Communications 11
23 September 2013
Death Swamp
One of the key principles of accomplishing a challenge is with the help and support of a group of people. Is it necessary to use the skills of team work to overcome a task that requires more than one person to accomplish? The answer to that is absolutely and positively YES. The ability to put all of our knowledge together and use it as an advantage to complete a challenge is extraordinary and powerful. I believe that the most powerful skill in an individual is there knowledge and combined with other peoples knowledge creates a superpower mindset. This skill was expressed in an activity called “Death Swamp”; the goal was to get across this dangerous swamp without touching the water or you will immediately die. With the knowledge of an individual come with a combination of thinking and problem solving skills which was a key skill to understand how to get through the “Death Swamp”. The purpose of this assignment was to use teamwork to find a solution to the problem.
Now it was our goal to get thru the swamp. The first assignment of the “Death Swamp” was to get across an imaginary swamp with cinder blocks and 2x4 wooden planks and also a decoy, a rope to make us think outside the box and realize that we didn’t need the rope to get to the end of the swamp. Some wooden planks were short some were long and some cinder blocks was closer than other and a different wooden plank had to be used. My team consisted of my peers Taylor, Anna and Jiovanni and me. We were lucky to be the last group to go and two groups were ahead of us and we had a chance to see how the other groups performed and gathered information on how to get across the swamp we watched and listened which was an advantage for my team that we greatly appreciated. The rules were that neither the rope nor the wooden planks can touch the ground if so everyone had to start from the beginning of the swamp and you also had eight minutes to complete the objective of finish crossing the swamp.
Once it was our turn to go up, we had to plan what we were going to do. My team and I got in a huddle and we talked on how we were going to overcome this challenge. So as we watched and listened to the other groups go on the first day everything was horrible because we all fell for the decoy which was the rope. On the first day Ms. Aponte gave us eight minutes to complete the death swamp and on the second day we have seven minutes and on the last day we had five minutes but as the days went by we had a better idea on how to get to the end but on top of that the time limit was decreasing. On the second day our teacher felt bad because we kept using the rope and she told us it was a decoy, and then that’s when the activity was getting good because everyone was getting close to the end but always ended up dropping the wood or losing balance. On the last day it was determined that everyone had to get to the last piece of wood and finish the challenge, so on our second try we had Jiovanny go first because he was the second strongest of them all and I would be last one to get the first piece of wood across the swamp to hand it to Jiovanny but unfortunately Jiovanny dropped the piece of wood. Continuing on the last day that we had five minutes to complete the challenge Jiovanny was absent, so to win this I knew I would have to go big and take leadership so my team can win. The first group had finished in four minutes and forty-five seconds, but I was determined that my team and I were going to beat heir time with one of us missing. I had to go up and down the swamp to pick up the first piece of wood with the help of Taylor I was able to get it up and bring it to the end of the swamp and complete the challenge in four minutes and forty-four seconds.
The outcome of this assignment was very good. My team was able to use our abilities of listening and watching the other groups to get an idea on how to complete the challenge. With our knowledge and the experience within the two days, we had come up with a plan that led us to have the fastest time. In addition to this activity I reflected leadership and being the muscle of the team for carrying them to the end, but that was only possible for me to do because of the help and support from my grateful team members Taylor and Anna.