By Laurel White
There’s nothing like a great ice breaker to, well, break the ice.
Activities that inspire groups to get up, move, connect, and grow are at the heart of a new phone app created by Cindy Kuhrasch, a distinguished teaching faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology and program coordinator for the School of Education’s Physical Education Teacher Education program.
The app, enCourage, offers users a buffet of activities for groups, accompanied by detailed how-to descriptions and videos. Its hundreds of activities are also sorted into categories based on specific group needs, from breaking the ice to enhancing problem solving skills and building trust.
Kuhrasch worked with students in her kinesiology courses to brainstorm and select activities for the app. Students also helped build the app. Kuhrasch says enCourage was created to serve a wide range of users, from teachers and coaches to community group facilitators and office leaders.
“I see the app as applicable to anyone who engages in community building through educational means, regardless of their discipline,” she says. “The goal is to provide educators with simple yet high-impact activities that can be used to build social and emotional skills.”
The app also offers processing questions for groups to debrief about their experience playing individual games — what they observed in themselves and other players, what they felt, and what they learned.
The creation of enCourage was funded by a School of Education Staff Innovation Grant. The innovation grants are a Dean’s Office initiative aimed at rewarding the ingenuity and dedication of School staff by providing financial support for innovative projects.
Kuhrasch says the potentially limitless impact of enCourage, which is available for free in the Apple and Google Play app stores, is incredibly exciting.
“This project has the potential to reach thousands of people worldwide,” Kuhrasch says. “I am confident that it will make a real difference in the lives of learners of all ages.”