KiC-1 (The puzzle exercise) Get the materials here (see below)
The KiC-1 exercise brings the Improvement Kata alive through a 50-minute hands-on activity that involves teams working on a number of self-generated iterations to complete a small puzzle.
Students follow the steps of the Improvement Kata to (1) face a challenge, (2) see where they are now, (3) establish their next interim goal, and (4) experiment toward that goal in three-minute rounds.
KiC-1 illustrates the four-step Improvement Kata pattern and helps students recognize that any idea we have needs to be tested – no matter how sure we feel. You can build on these scientific-thinking fundamentals.
Everything you need to run the exercise is shown below. Instructions for setup and conducting the exercise are at the start of the PowerPoint file. Start by downloading and reviewing the PowerPoint file. It's recommended that you run the exercise exactly as designed once or twice. Then you can adapt it as you wish!
The items you need for the KiC-1 exercise
(click to download - free)
Facilitate the exercise directly from this PowerPoint file. In 'presenter' mode it has prompts for what to say at each slide.
Download & print these
three items
The poster prints best as .pdf
Download the KiC-1 PowerPoint This walks you through the exercise step by step.
Latest Update: November 2019
Order the puzzle
Click on the puzzle above to go to the ordering page on the Ravensburger website.
When you order, enter the teacher coupon code kic20us which will give you a one-time 40% discount. Your price is $4.20 per puzzle.
You need one puzzle per team of 4 or 5 students.
START HERE: Download and read through the PowerPoint file to familiarize yourself with the exercise
Once you've run the KiC-1 exercise, think about where else your learners can apply the four steps of the Improvement Kata. It takes some meaningful repetition to develop a new skill. A student project? A report? A particular goal? For ideas & examples visit the "Applications" page of this website.
