Bid, Barter, Build Activity

This Activity is meant for Scouts BSA.

monopoly money - $1,000 or so for each team
various materials that people can stand on - paper plates, chairs, 2x4, rope, cardboard, garbage cans, garbage bags, tires, frisbees, whatever you can gather.

Give each team their money.
Put all the materials in an area where all can be seen and inspected.

Takes effort to get the materials together and cleaned up, but good planning, problem-solving, plan modification, and teamwork activity. Builds team unity.

Objective: Get your entire team across the toxic sludge river using only materials from the pile that you have purchased.

Tell everyone that they will bid on materials and then use what they win to complete their goal.

Describe each item from the materials pile and any special characteristic about it. For example, maybe paper plates get washed away if no foot is holding it down, or a 2x4 sinks if more than 5 scouts are on it - or keep it simple with no extras if you prefer.

Give teams about 3-5 minutes to come up with a plan on how they will cross the sludge and what materials they will need to buy.

Bid: Auction off each item (or group of items), accept bids from the teams until one team wins the bid. Exchange their money for the item. Continue until all items are sold or all teams have what they want.

Barter: Give up to 5 minutes for teams to trade with each other for items they still need.

Build: Using the materials they have, all teams approach the marked off river and get everyone across. No one on a team can touch the river or they start over.

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Reflect:
How did your team reach a plan?
Did everyone agree with and like the plan?
How were disagreements handled?
Who led the planning?
Who led the bidding?
Who led the building?
Did you have the materials for your original plan or did you need to modify it?