Students holding up hands in class

Head, Heart, Hand

 Why do it? Break the ice by learning a bit about what others know, care about, and can do.

 Category: Icebreaker / Evaluation
 Time: 20 minutes
 Group or Individual: Group Activity

 

Overview

In this activity, participants will think about three aspects of what makes them who they are looking at their head – or what they know, their heart – what they care about, and their hands – what they can do. This builds a sense of community and gives groups a chance to see how they may have overlapping interests or varying experiences from others in the room.

 

Directions

  1. Put the prompts in a place where all participants can access them and ask them to consider the following for either their personal or student identity:
    1. Head
      What do you know? Like, if you were asked to teach us something right now, what could you teach us about?
    2. Heart
      What are you passionate about?
    3. Hands
      What are you really good at?
  2. Ask the participants to take two to five minutes to write a response for each of the three areas for them personally.
  3. Once time has passed, ask participants to move into small groups and share out what they wrote for each.
  4. Ask each group to determine what they might share out with the larger group that they learned, or, you may ask that the groups share out if any themes emerged within their groups.

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Variations

  1. Introducing a professional aspect of self

    Suggested prompts are the same as above but with a professional lens:

    1. Head
      What do you know? Like, if you were asked to teach us something right now, what could you teach us about?
    2. Heart
      What are you passionate about?
    3. Hands
      What are you really good at?
  2. Evaluating an idea, project or process

    Suggested prompts:

    1. Head (logical)
      1. Does this make sense to everyone?
      2. Is it useful?
      3. Does it make sense for our group?
      4. Is it new or different or innovative?
    2. Heart (emotional)
      1. Who is the audience?
      2. Will they be excited about this?
      3. Are we excited about it?
      4. Why should people care about this?
    3. Hands (practical)
      1. Are there practical implications?
      2. Are there any recommendations or suggestions for practice?
      3. Does it meet the requirements or needs or objectives?

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Note: In a virtual space? No worries. Use a virtual whiteboard, slides, or a simple shared document to facilitate and gather ideas.

 

References

  • Pip Decks (2022). https://pipdecks.com/heart

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