The Edge: Observation is Key

Our class went to the Edge to work on teambuilding skills and to physically test our problem-solving abilities.Our class was broken up into groups of about twelve people. My group started off with a bit of a warm-up exercise. We were told to stand in a circle and then given a tarp with five holes in it. We were then given a tennis ball and told we had to come up with a way to flip the tarp over without the tennis ball falling off. It took a bit of practice but after about 15mins we managed!

Next we were taken into the depths of the property. Along the way we were given interesting topics to briefly discus with a designated conversation partner. (The topic that stuck with me the most was defining what home is; much harder than I expected!) When arrived at an area with benches and were given a mission. We were going to be blindfolded and clipped in to a rope maze. Our goal was to find the right “key” which we were allowed to get a glimpse of just before being blindfolded. It was a piece of tarp cut into a triangle.

The Edge is a teambuilding organization run by George Mason University and located in Prince William County. It has various obstacle courses scattered around the property along with one ominously large climbing tower. Activities vary from balancing on a seesaw-y platform to tight roping.

We were able to effectively work together to navigate the maze but we ran into an issue. There were multiple “keys” in the maze! After debating about how to discern the proper one we took a guess. Sadly it wasn’t right! The only well to tell which was ours was by a small tear on one end. If we had inspected it more carefully maybe we have been able to figure it out!I

learned that there is more than one way to solve any problem. Being cognizant of that makes working with others much easier. I also learned that it’s easy to miss key distinctions in anything, even when a dozen people consciously look at it!