Pyramud or Snowball
The PYRAMID (also known as SNOWBALL) is a technique based on the exchange of ideas or solutions. Students must work on a particular subject individually or in couples for some minutes. After discussing with another couple, the four of them will discuss with other members, and so on, ending up on a discussion among all the students of the group.
This technique fosters the involvement of students and helps developing their capacity to put forward their own ideas. Not only students learn to participate but also to become aware that their ideas take part of the whole effort of a group. It is a way to expand the variety of conceptions: every time the group expands, a new idea is evaluated, improving the quality of the overall result.
In order to avoid that students become bored because of the repetitive discussion on a subject, a good strategy to use is increasing the difficulty of the subject to be discussed every time the group becomes bigger.
This technique fosters the involvement of students and helps developing their capacity to put forward their own ideas. Not only students learn to participate but also to become aware that their ideas take part of the whole effort of a group. It is a way to expand the variety of conceptions: every time the group expands, a new idea is evaluated, improving the quality of the overall result.
In order to avoid that students become bored because of the repetitive discussion on a subject, a good strategy to use is increasing the difficulty of the subject to be discussed every time the group becomes bigger.