Try the astronauts puzzle teamwork challenge

You’ll need

Rubber gloves, such as washing up gloves or mittens.
Jigsaw puzzles
Tables
Timer (optional)

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and setting up this activity

Set up an area in different spaces of the meeting place and put a puzzle in each one. There should be enough areas for everyone to work in groups of four.
You may wish to use the same puzzles and have the teams race against each other or have a different puzzle on each table for teams to try.

Running this activity

Gather everyone together and explain that you’ll all be pretending to be astronauts in space.
Ask everyone what tasks they think astronauts might do in space. Astronauts use their hands for many important tasks in space. Astronauts practice using their hands in special training centres on Earth to get ready for their space missions. Even though they wear thick gloves during spacewalks, they can still do very tricky jobs. They build and repair broken parts of the space station. Then they carryout science experiments, examining rocks, plants and even their own body fluids. They operate spacecraft controls, inside the space station and outside. They also carryout daily tasks such as eating, cleaning, and getting dressed.
Ask everyone to get into groups of four.
Each group can put on their washing up gloves, then they must work as a team and complete the puzzle.
You could either have teams race against each other to complete the same puzzle, or you could have different sized puzzles on each table and see which is easiest.
You could also add in extra challenges, such as:

If you drop a piece, you get a time penalty.
Two members of the team are blindfolded and they’re the only ones who can touch the puzzle pieces. The others must tell them what to do.
Every 30 seconds, they must ‘drift’ (lift one foot off the ground and sway side to side), just like astronauts floating in microgravity.
They must wear goggles to simulate low visibility in space helmets.
Every time they drop a piece, they must ‘reboot’ their systems by spinning in place three times before continuing.
They can only use their non-dominant hand (simulating reduced dexterity).
You could do the puzzles in boxes to replicate astronauts using a glovebox to do more dangerous experiments in space. Choose a large cardboard box and cut two holes from hands to go through on each side of the box. Place a washing-up glove through each hole, then secure it in place with duct tape. Finally, place the puzzle in the box, cover the top of the box in clingfilm and then secure the clingfilm in place with tape. People can then put their hands in the gloves to try and solve the puzzle.

7. You could also place a different challenge on each table. Some additional challenges you could try while wearing thick gloves are:

Carefully transfer small items (such as beans, marbles, mini pom-poms) from one container to another using tweezers or spoons, just like delicate lab work in space.
Build a structure (such as something made from LEGO, magnetic tiles or even marshmallows and toothpicks) according to a provided blueprint.
Make the highest playing card pyramid that they can.
Wrap a small box using wrapping paper and tape.
Fold and throw a paper airplane while wearing gloves. The goal is to make the best-flying design.
Small floating objects (such as ping pong balls) are placed in a bowl of water (simulating microgravity). The team must retrieve them using tongs or spoons while wearing gloves, just like astronauts retrieve tools and capture objects drifting in space using robotic arms.
Sort small objects (buttons, paper pieces, coins) into bowls for different categories (by colour, shape, or size) while wearing gloves, just like an astronaut may need to sort and analyse materials, such as rock samples or biological specimens.

Reflection

This activity was all about experiencing what it’s like to be an astronaut by completing tricky tasks while wearing gloves, just like they do in space! We learned that astronauts need to be patient, work together, and use careful movements to complete their jobs. What else might astronauts need to do? If you were an astronaut, which skill or job do you think you would enjoy doing most?

Some tasks, such as connecting or picking up the pieces, might have been much harder with gloves on—just like in space where things float around, and suits make movement tricky. What was the hardest part of the activity for you? Even though it was challenging, we found ways to solve problems and help each other. How did working as a team make things easier?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Active games: The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.
Contact games and activities: Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.