Baylor Business Students Seek Mayborn Mysteries

Students in the Leadership and Organizational Behavior course broke away from the classroom experience for a fun-filled night at the Mayborn Museum Complex on Monday, Sept. 19.

More than 225 MGT 3305 students heard from guest speakers and participated in a team-building scavenger hunt as part of a night organized by Rachel Woods, clinical associate professor of Management, John White, clinical assistant professor of Management, and Mayborn leaders. The event provided students an opportunity to foster relationships with their teammates, who they work on a semester-long group project with.

“Our goal is to teach future managers to get their teams to the performing phase of development more effectively and efficiently,” Woods said. “We’ve created a team experience where they can go to the museum and foster relationships, breaking down some of those barriers they might have to help them have a better team experience.”

To kick off the event, students enjoyed refreshments accompanied by Baylor mascots, Bruiser and Marigold, and listened to guest speaker Lesa Bush, the associate director of the Mayborn Museum Complex. Then, guided by the clues on their hunt checklists, students scavenged exhibits to discover items and snapped pictures to prove their findings. The first three groups to successfully finish the hunt were awarded goodie baskets filled with treats.

London King, a member of one of the winning teams, said she explored almost the entire museum, which brought her feelings of nostalgia.

“I was able to adventure throughout the entire museum and look at almost all of the exhibits,” King, a junior Accounting major, said. “My favorite exhibit had to be the bubble room since it was nostalgic and made me feel like a little kid on a school field trip.”

Moving forward from the fun night, students will benefit from the bonds made with their teammates and learn to apply their experience to classroom teachings. Throughout this course, Woods and White will teach students how teams develop and how to manage teams through the predictable phases of team development.

“It’s important students have experiences working in teams while they’re in school because that’s what they’re going to be doing in the workplace,” Woods said. “I want to give them opportunities to experience and understand the complexity of it before they get there.”

Woods first conducted this event in the spring 2020 semester. This year’s event added three more sections of MGT 3305 sections taught by Professor White, which doubled attendance for the scavenger hunt.

The event was brought to life through Woods’ relationship with Mayborn Museum leaders, who she has presented with at museum industry conferences, including an Association of Children’s Museums Annual Conference and at a Texas Association of Museums Annual Conference. Marrying her industry relationships with management course objectives, Woods created a unique partnership that benefits all parties.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with Mayborn Museum leaders and thought, ‘what else can we do together?’” Woods said. “My class includes a lot of experiential activities, but I think the Mayborn provides a great opportunity to get out of the classroom and do something special.”