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With the wide array of courses available at APU, choosing one that fits your interests and future goals can be quite an eye-opening experience. However, I believe some of the courses here at APU stand out as particularly engaging and valuable for every student. These courses offer rich, in-depth content that can make your time at APU more interesting and memorable.
In this article, I would like to introduce one such course from my experience: the “Entrepreneurship” course with Professor Makino from the College of International Management! While I expected to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship through traditional lectures, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how the course emphasized hands-on learning.
A notable example of Professor Makino's hands-on approach was the LEGO® Serious Play® workshop at the end of the course. This workshop was the main highlight for me, as it allowed us to immerse ourselves in creativity—an essential aspect of entrepreneurship. It served as a memorable conclusion to the course. After all, when a workshop uses LEGO® to teach, how can it not be memorable?
Here is a more detailed description of my experience for the LEGO® workshop!
The day of the workshop began with the students' usual bickering and chatter, highlighted by the Professor's unconventional yet effective method of silencing the class by asking everyone to raise their hands with her. Once the entire class was silent, we were given a brief overview of the workshop: each of our six-person groups was to collect six packets of LEGO® from the class's front desk. The packets were clearly labeled, and we were given a catalog of LEGO® parts beforehand.
For our first activity, we were instructed to build the tallest tower possible and place the LEGO® mini-figure from our packets on top. With a three-minute time limit, I was initially proud of my seemingly tall tower, but I was surprised to see other students build much taller towers with the same number of LEGO® pieces!
Among the lighthearted gasps and exclamations at the demonstrations of creativity, we were given our second assignment. The professor showed us a bizarre mosaic of abstract LEGO® creations and asked us to select one to build. After creating our models, we had to use them to describe an important part of our hometown or country's culture.
Unfortunately, I chose an unusual mix of a crocodile and a speedboat. The others were just as odd as my model. As my groupmates and I sped through brainstorming how our models represented our cultures, we discovered we were developing and exchanging ideas more freely than we would have done orally. This exercise underlined the workshop's central theme: promoting equity and equality in idea exchange.
Our final task was to create a model of where we see ourselves in ten years and discuss it with our groupmates. Materializing our future and imagining where we want to be in the next decade, in my opinion, was a fitting conclusion to the workshop.
According to Professor Makino, the main purpose of the workshop is to prepare students for entrepreneurial careers by fostering their imagination. She notes that while elementary and middle schools encourage imagination, it often diminishes by high school and is not typically developed in universities.
Imagining what doesn't currently exist can be very challenging. This is where the LEGO® Serious Play® workshop comes in, as it is easier for participants to express themselves when they can materialize their thoughts and ideas through the models they create. Professor Makino also emphasized that the workshop ensures everyone creates and shares a model, promoting equity and equality in idea-sharing, which is critical for teamwork.
Professor Makino, who has over ten years of experience with LEGO® Serious Play®, believes the workshop is especially effective for team building among students who don't know each other well. The bricks enable students to communicate in a safe environment, overcoming language barriers, particularly among international students. This allows everyone to freely share their ideas, regardless of language proficiency.
This was very noticeable in the workshop, as one of the students, Simoon Khan, stated that he had a "better" time connecting with his groupmates through this workshop compared to the usual group activities in class.
While wrapping up with my groupmates for my next class at the end of the workshop, I realized how deeply it had impacted all of us. Personally, the workshop fostered my creativity and imagination in unexpected ways, especially when I had to represent my culture using an abstract LEGO® model. It also encouraged open communication and teamwork, allowing us to exchange ideas freely and connect on a deeper level. This hands-on approach to learning entrepreneurship not only made the course more engaging but also equipped us with valuable skills, such as problem-solving and collaboration, for our future careers. Overall, I believe this workshop was a powerful reminder of how innovative educational methods can transform learning and leave a lasting impression.
Hello, everyone! I'm Razin, a second year APM student. If you enjoy discussing Marxism or reading fictional novels, feel free to say hi when you see me on campus. I'm excited to promote APU through my SPA articles, especially through the perspective of all my peers!
Copyright (c) 2016 Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
