No Text, No Problem

I chose the Foraging or Farming Marketing Activity as our first project. We have a really nice trail system for our Cross-Country team (I am the coach of that), and I like to get students out there. So, I give them one class time to plan, shoot, and edit a 30-- to 60-second ad for either foraging or farming. 

This isn't enough time to dig into either, so I use this to discuss the expectations for group dynamics and what I want for them when we do a project outside of the classroom. It is a good way to observe the group dynamics outside of our physical classroom. 

I was stunned how successful the foraging simulation activity was with my 8th graders. I acquired 150 red and 150 blue bingo chips from our Science department. I scattered them around the room and told them to find 3, at least one of each, just as the direction were given. After round one, in both of my classes, no student considered grabbing more than 3 chips. Then I let round 2 begin with the idea that I never specified the maximum allowed. Each round I checked for who "survived," and collected chips.  The tension grew, and we did this for 4 rounds. The debrief afterward was magical. Some students confessed to getting a bit violent (okay, not really that serious, but...a little friendly pushing and shoving.). Some begged others for some chips. Some voluntarily looked for who needed more and offered to share. A few enterprising folks saw where this was going and began hoarding chips for future rounds.  It was an amazing debrief. On their own, they concluded that you either had to search I a new location, have less people searching (one suggested cannibalism but we negated that), and another just said, "we need to find a way to get more resources.). 

I was hesitant to do this activity, and I'm so glad I did.