A roundup of recommended icebreakers for college students
An icebreaker refers to simple activities or games designed to ease tension among participants, shorten the emotional distance between them, and facilitate smooth communication.
They’re especially effective in situations where people are meeting for the first time.
If you’re a university student, you’ve probably encountered them in first classes, group work, club activities, or even during job hunting.
In this article, we’ll introduce a range of easy icebreakers that help people get closer to one another.
We’ve focused on activities based on self-introductions and fun games that progress through mutual communication, so pick the ones that fit the situation where you want to use an icebreaker.
- [For University Students] A Roundup of Fun Games and Recreational Activities
- [Self-Introduction & Games] Icebreaker Ideas Collection
- Icebreaker Ideas and Games Collection
- Games you can play with just conversation. Classic and popular activities you can enjoy without any props!
- Indoor games and recreational activities recommended for college students
- Fun games recommended for making friends with people you’ve just met
- Break the ice with intros and team battles! Party games to spice up your welcome event
- A roundup of recommended personality tests for icebreakers
- Games to Liven Up the Freshers’ Welcome Party
- A simple and fun co-op game that enhances teamwork
- Get the Fun Going! Easy Classroom Games You Can Play at School: Recreational Activities for the Whole Class
- [Simple Games] Recommended Indoor Recreational Activities for Adults
- [In a Short Time] Icebreakers and Fun Games That Shine at Morning Meetings
Recommended Icebreakers for College Students (31–40)
Does an English conversation telephone game work?
Let’s try playing a game of telephone in English, where each person passes along the same phrase to the next! First, present an English sentence as the prompt.
It’s recommended to have an AI tool read it aloud rather than a person pronouncing it directly.
The first person listens to the sentence and passes it on to the next person.
If the last person can accurately state what the original English sentence was and provide its Japanese translation, the group succeeds.
You could also make the sentence a question and have the last person give an appropriate answer to that question.
It’s a fun communication game that will make you laugh while also testing everyone’s English skills.
No equipment needed! Air catch ball
“Air Catch,” a make-believe game of tossing an imaginary ball without any props, is a very simple team-building activity.
Participants form a circle.
Someone calls another person’s name while miming a throw of the “air ball,” and the next person pretends to catch it and continues in the same way.
The rules are: make eye contact and call the person’s name before you throw.
Once everyone gets used to it, you can increase the difficulty by tossing multiple balls at once or speeding things up.
It builds communication skills and concentration and gets people laughing, making it great for training icebreakers and strengthening team cohesion.
It takes about 5–15 minutes, so give it a try!
Six patients and medicine
It presents the ultimate choice: help one critically ill patient or save five moderately ill patients.
There is only one dose of medicine; the critical patient needs the entire dose, whereas the moderate patients can all survive if it is divided among them.
The dilemma of valuing a single life versus prioritizing the many exposes one’s values.
Key discussion points include whether all lives are equal in weight or whether social roles should be considered.
It is important for the whole class to debate and work toward a single final decision, making this a thought-provoking theme that lets students experience the challenges of ethics and difficult choices.
A game developed by NASA
Let’s try playing a game developed by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
To briefly explain the game: it assumes a situation where a spaceship has malfunctioned, and you rank 15 items you have on hand.
You assign ranks in order of necessity, and decide them through group discussion.
First, each person should make their own ranking based on their interpretation, and then discuss and reconcile the differences with the group.
Can you determine the correct order—and survive?
Poem of First Love
It’s a theme that lets you reflect on romance while enjoying a story packed with the sweet-and-sour freshness and poignancy of first love.
By thinking about why she exchanged emails and why she sent those words, you can imagine the movements of a person’s heart.
When she seemed to be happily spending time with the boy like a friend, why did I give up on my feelings? Beneath that might lie a lack of confidence or the inner struggle of not being able to muster the courage.
By discussing it with classmates, you can relive the characters’ emotions and overlay them with what you would have done yourself—that’s the appeal.
It’s a topic that invites lively exchanges of opinions, with the bittersweetness of love and personal growth as its themes.
Runaway Trolley and Workers
A consensus game themed on a thought experiment proposed in 1967 by British philosopher Philippa Foot.
There are multiple workers on a railway track, and unless something is done, a major accident will occur; if you flip a switch, you sacrifice one person to save many lives.
Should you flip the switch, or leave things as they are? The key is first to consider the dilemma individually, then to reach a single conclusion as a group.
Because differences in positions and values become clear, it’s a compelling topic that sparks lively discussion.
The Runaway Trolley, the Worker, and the Fat Man
A further variation on the trolley problem is the scenario where you could stop the trolley by pushing a fat man standing beside the tracks.
If you push him, many lives would be saved, but you must make the decision to directly sacrifice that person.
The choices are simple, yet they question the value of life and the ethics of actions.
In group discussions, opinions tend to split between prioritizing outcomes and prioritizing the action itself, leading to heated debate.
It’s an idea that allows classmates to delve deeply into their individual values through discussion.
Survivors
A consensus game where you consider what decisions you would make to survive when suddenly faced with a disaster.
The theme is the real-life crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, inspired by the film “Alive.” Participants take on the role of a survivor and discuss how to respond to Roberto’s proposed actions, as well as how to overcome limited food supplies and the extreme cold.
Through discussion, players experience cooperation and differing values in a crisis, and because it tests a team’s ability to consolidate opinions and make judgments, it makes for an engaging, educational activity in schools and training programs.
It’s a theme that lets you enjoy the critical choices and viewpoints at key moments.
Escape from the Desert
This is a consensus game with the scenario: your plane has made an emergency landing in a desert where only cacti grow.
You have 12 items, such as a flashlight, a compass, a plastic rain poncho, and an aerial photo map.
Rank these items in order of importance.
First, think individually, then discuss within your group.
Consider detailed conditions—like temperatures exceeding 40°C and the nearest settlement being over 100 km away—as you work toward the optimal solution.
Captain’s Decision
Consensus is a word that means “agreement.” There are many possible situations, but in a consensus game you face a particular challenge.
In this case, while you’re at sea, visibility becomes poor, and by the time you spot another ship’s silhouette, a collision is already unavoidable.
As the captain, you must address the given items in the optimal order.
Your group discusses and decides that order.
At the end, you compare the model answer with your group’s answer and calculate the rank difference for each item.
The group with the lowest total difference wins.