January Transition Activity

Independence for the Blind of West Florida took 6 students to the Coconut Creek Family Fun Park in Panama City, Saturday January 31, 2009 to have fun while learning about the importance of teamwork, problem solving skills, and communication.

Pictured above, from left: Annely, Megan, Erin, Darreck, Cassie, John, and Alex in the Maze.

The students from the Transition Program split up into teams, boys vs. girls. Their “challenge” was to make it through the Gran Maze, a human-sized maze the size of a football field. At the start point, each participant had to “clock-in” using their maze ticket so their start time is recorded. They then had to find four checkpoints, which were located at the top of wooden lookout spots.

Pictured above: Erin and Annely try to find their way to one of the checkpoints (the wooden towers with blue, orange, green, and red roofs).

Pictured above: Students on top of one of four checkpoints, trying to figure out how to get through Gran Maze.

Pictured above: Erin happy she finally found one of the checkpoints.

Once at the top of the checkpoint, participants had to punch a hole in their ticket at each location. Participants were to find the finish line and “clock-out” to show their end time. Every team member had to make it to the finish line for their team to win the challenge.

Pictured above: John and Darreck, lost in the maze.

Each group worked extremely hard to make it to the finish line first. The boy’s team was in the lead until they made it to the third checkpoint. At that time, the girl’s team was able to catch up, because they had used better communication skills than the boy’s team. The final checkpoint was extremely hard to find for both teams.
Pictured above: the boys look down from a checkpoint as Alicia takes a picture from the maze below.

After a long time of traveling down the wrong path, coming to dead ends, and going in circles, a member of the girl’s team found the last checkpoint. A strategy was then developed:
Send one participant ahead while another stays on the tower at the checkpoint and yells direction to the finish line. The girls ALMOST had it, but the boy’s team made it to the finish line 2 minutes before the remainder of the girls could find it!


CONGRATULATIONS BOYS TEAM!
Pictured below: Emmett, Darreck, Mr. O’Dillon, and Alex