Pick Your Distance: Risk and Achievement Motivation

A precision throwing game in which each student decides how far away to throw from: farther is worth more points but has a lower hit rate. It is used to analyze Atkinson's achievement motivation theory and how fear of failure or the drive to succeed shapes the risks we take.

How to play

1. Set up five lanes, each with a hoop on the ground and cones at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 meters worth 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 points per hit (3 min).
2. Practice round: three throws from each distance to learn one's own hit rate, recorded on the worksheet (7 min).
3. Scoring round: ten throws, choosing the distance before each one; the partner records distance and result (6 min).
4. Audience round: repeat with the group watching and the chosen distance announced out loud (5 min).
5. Analysis: each student checks whether they chose moderate-risk, very easy or very hard distances and whether that changed with an audience (4 min).

Rules

• Throw only when the lane is clear, and the whole line collects beanbags together on the signal.
• Beanbags are thrown underhand.
• Nobody comments on or laughs at anyone's chosen distance.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: throw from the wheelchair with distances adjusted to reach.
• Visual impairment: a classmate claps behind the hoop, and distances are shorter.
• Autism: may do the audience round looking only at the hoop, with the group standing behind.

Learning goals

• Analyze how chosen difficulty reflects achievement motivation.
• Use one's own hit rate to choose suitable challenges.
• Reflect on how being watched affects risk-taking.

Equipment for a class of 25

• beanbags: 25
• hoops: 5
• cones: 25
• worksheets: 30

Teacher tip

Atkinson predicts that success seekers pick moderate risk while those who fear failure pick very easy or impossible targets; explain this after playing, not before. With 25–30 students, put five or six per lane.

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