“Perhaps this qualifies. To assign teams, I use a 5-minute drill that (1) helps the students mix and get to know a few others, and (2) results in heterogeneity on at least one dimension. I have the class line up in a row. The first in line is the person whose home (i.e., parents home, not campus housing) is closest to campus. The last in line is the student whose home is most distant. In mingling to decide where they stand in line, they get to meet lots of people as they work out the logistics. Then, we number off (according to how many groups are necessary) 1-X. I suppose other sorting criteria could be used by schools where most of the students come from the same geographic area. But at a school like ours, they span the globe and it works quite well.”