Best final ever: The Org Comm Amazing Race!

During my senior year of college, I took a class on creativity and communication. I vividly remember our final exam involving food and art (specifically, painting tiny totem poles). Since then, I've thought about tasty ways to end semesters with my students. Lately, that's meant potlucks.

This term's Organizational Communication students really outdid themselves with potluck provisions. The goods ranged from homemade cupcakes, salad, and chicken enchiladas, to guacamole, onion rings, chocolate covered strawberries, and more. I so enjoyed sharing this bounty together as we listened to classmates report on their final projects... building "Amazing Races," org comm style.

Potluck in Senior Seminar in Organizational Communication at Sac State. So fun to celebrate the end of the semester as most in the class will be walking at graduation in a few days.

New rule: Every final exam should come with chocolate covered strawberries!

The project involved students building scavenger hunt-style challenges based upon organizational communication concepts, and then sharing their Top Ten challenges in class.

I loved that we had actors role playing challenges:

Carol, far left, cooked up some very tasty chicken enchiladas.

I'll let you guess where the "output" sign was posted.

One group mimicked the format of the TV show Amazing Race to introduce "contestants" and challenges...

Some sported Sac State alumni shirts pre-celebrating Saturday's commencement ceremony...

One group incorporated video messages from a member who couldn't be present...

All groups developed fun and innovative challenges designed to get students to connect theory and practice, to see how concepts emerge across various organizational contexts.

One group created most excellent Prezi presentations...

And got me really thinking about how professors use artifacts to share their identities at work...

And one group developed fun puzzles and a crossword!

Best. Final. Ever.

All in all, I loved our last two hours together, and look forward to reading the rest of their work.

Definitely didn't feel like a typical final exam! (It's a shame I still have to do all the grading though.)

xoxo,
shawna