Chapter News

"Papa, do you also come to our school and tell us about your profession? " my 9-year-old daughter asked just before the holiday. "Today, there was a mother who worked at the hospital, and last week, another mother who worked at Apple. You can also talk about what you do, right?"

Yes, I can. Actually, I can not only talk but even let the class experience what it means to work on projects or manage a project by playing a very fun game: building a tower with nothing more than uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows.

The teacher at the Annie M.G. Schmidtschool in the Hague was also very enthusiastic when I explained that PMI the Netherlands has a package and a fun exercise ready for primary schools, explaining my profession: a project manager. He even booked 1 ½ hours, allowing more than sufficient time.

Of course, there's no lecture without explaining what a project is. The children could quickly reflect on their own activities and realize they are already working on projects, not just at school but also at home.

Then the fun started: building the highest possible tower within 10 minutes. How do you do that? The creativity was huge, even utilizing the support of sticking spaghetti between their tables for increased stability. In the second round, most teams could improve, demonstrating they had learned from the first round, although some risk-takers were not rewarded.

In the end, only 1 team could win, but everybody enjoyed the marshmallows.

Are you interested in explaining your work as a project manager to your children's class? Contact academic-outreach@pmi-nl.nl to receive a deck available in Dutch and English.