Shipwrecked

45 min | Team | Discussion Game Initiative Ethical & sustainable thinking Creativity

The Challenge

In this dynamic, students were traveling by plane for their holidays but the plane had an accident and the pilot had to land on the ocean to avoid a catastrophe. Now, they are on a boat with 12 objects, they are too heavy to manage to land on the shore of an island they can see in the distance. Hence, they have to list these objects in order of importance for their needs, from less important (1) to the most important (12), being the number 1 the first object that students will throw overboard.

List of required equipment

Template of the practical exercise
Scissors
Paper and pencil

What can students learn from this?

As there’s one individual phase and one per team, this practical exercise shows students that their decisions have to be explained and debated when they work in team, as well as in almost all the aspects of their lives.

We are going to observe how students set their priorities, plan and set objectives to try to achieve them. In the group phase, the most important will be to assess the negotiation abilities of the students, as well as the extent to which they can convince their classmates with their reasoning.

How can I do this in class?

Presentation of dynamic

Teacher explains the objective of dynamics and presents the 12 objects that students have in the boat and that they have to classify depending on the importance given to SURVIVE, GET RESCUED or ARRIVE to the island.

Individual part (10 min)

First of all, the students have to make an individual list of the 12 objects.

Group part (20 min)

Now, students have to make an agreement to have ONLY one list of preferences. This is the most difficult and interesting part. Observe the skills of each student and talk about the importance of teamwork.

Discussion and results (15 min)

Tell the students that the important objects were:

Water and rod to have hydration and food
Lighter and coal to make fire
Parachute and mirror to make signals to get rescued

Depending on the objects that they consider most important, they value one of these three objectives.

RULES for student

Think about your final objective
Think about weight of objects and utility
Think about methods to arrive to agreements
Avoid misunderstandings and conflicts in your team (or solve it!)
Think about “hidden” uses of the items in the template

RULES for teacher:

Count the time and set the different phases (individual and team)
Pay attention to the role played by each of the team components
Avoid disinterest in the exercise encouraging students and putting them into situation
Provide all the information needed about the items, you can be creative
Promote critical thinking and development of skills related to setting of priorities

Reflection tips

Was it easy to put in common all the individual classifications done before by each of the members of the team?
Was it easy to make a single ranking? Why?
Do you think that in our daily lives we find situations like this? Do we have to make decisions?
What of the objectives was more important for you? Why?
Do you think that we always have to reach a consensus?
Which role was played by each of the team members? Did you negotiate or mediate?