Pac man race

Description

We decided to go with a Pac-Man theme for this project. We created posters to attract potential participants, then had them follow us along a path of dots that we placed leading from our base past all the flags we chose to pass and to our finishing base. To push the theme, we created Pac-Man (and Ms. Pac-Man, in case we got more than one participant) cardboard cutouts for the runners to wear around their necks and attached the fruit from the Pac-Man games to our backs. (In case anyone never played Pac-Man for some reason, Pac-Man eats the fruit, so the idea was to have the runner chase the fruit to the finish.) Also, we offered donuts as an incentive to participate.

Fruit we attached to our backs

The dots that we stuck in the ground to make a path

The poster that we used to indicate to the player who to follow

Poster with the instructions of how to play

Our player!

Reflection

It was pretty difficult to get people to actually read our signs as they walked. Many were walking to somewhere in particular they wanted to be (mostly class, I assume) and just didn’t have the time to run around campus, and I’m sure the rest were too lazy or thought we were crazy. (I refuse to believe that anyone legitimately didn’t want donuts.) In the end, we had the most success when we rolled up the poster with the long(ish) list of instructions until after people read the initial signs and only revealed that afterwards. Also, I’m pretty sure we got really lucky to have someone cooperative with a bit of spare time pass by after only five-ish minutes of waving signs around. (We actually started a bit late because we were still placing dots at the fountain, our destination base, at 10:20, so I had to run over from our starting base to grab the fruit, then run back and put them on.) We ended up finishing first in terms of time and passing six flags, tying us for first place with another team.

him wearing our object

Honestly, I’m not sure how much the dot path contributed to our success. I’d say we probably spent too much time placing dots for how little impact they had. (I think we barely finished placing dots before we actually finished the race, and we started placing them at around 9) Originally, the idea was that having the path would both help runners know where they’re going and perhaps help attract people, but the former was redundant because we ran with the runner, and the latter seemed not to matter given that our path immediately ran off through the grass and around into areas few people pass by. I don’t think anyone who passed by us while we were waving signs around actually noticed the dot path beforehand

The runner stayed with the player so
the dot path may seem a bit redundant

The prize

done!