Moving Through the Syllabus: “Breaking the Ice” Through a Spatial Psychodynamics-Informed Scavenger Hunt

How the first day of class unfolds sets the tone for student engagement over the remainder of the semester. Instructors often employ icebreakers to spark interactions and increase students’ comfort in their classroom. Yet many activities only tangentially link to the course content or narrowly target one form of learning. In our “syllabus scavenger hunt” icebreaker, students work collaboratively to unpack their course syllabus and physically move through spaces critical to their learning. Applying the principles of spatial psychodynamics theory, this icebreaker simultaneously activates cognitive, social, and affective learning. This format results in higher retention and application of course information and deepened relationships among students. Moreover, its flexibility allows translation to courses with different focal topics, student degree levels (undergraduate, graduate, etc.), and sizes. We detail the instructions for running the syllabus scavenger hunt and provide suggestions to help instructors optimize its integration into their courses.