This community building activity is reminiscent of the old “6 Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon” where people had to associate actors or movies and relate them to the actor Kevin Bacon in 6 steps or less. The purpose is to create a sense of community through seemingly shared experiences, while learning about others in your cohort/group.
1. Ask each student to write a short profile/bio of themselves as a bullet list of personal trivia, such as favorite foods, place of birth, birth order, number of offspring/siblings, occupation, hobbies, previous careers, etc.
2. Have other participants read each others bio, and then create a new posting that connects the cohort to him/her self through a minimum number of connections. If the cohort is small, they should include all members. If it is small groups, they should include 6 degrees of separation (or 6 other members).
3. In person this can be an oral activity. Online, this can be two separate discussion boards, one for the bios, and one for the connections.
For example, Mary loves nachos from Chili’s. John used to work at Chili’s in Detroit. Fred was born in Detroit and his dad is a welder. Lori took a welding class last summer at a folkart camp in the Appalachian Mountains. Cindy grew up in the Appalachians and is the youngest child in her family…and I am the youngest too.