Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Natural Resource Mining


Overview:
Through game play, participants discover that non-renewable resources are finite, and that a resource is collected until it is no longer profitable to do so.

Concepts covered:
non-renewable
cost/benefit
strategy
teamwork

Materials:
1 pound of mini pony beads in assorted colors
1 pair tweezers per player
1 large bowl with locking lid
11 small bowls with locking lids

How the Game is Played:
· Teams must extract an assigned color from the large bowl filled with beads.
· One at a time, team members use forceps/tweezers to pluck one bead from the larger bowl and transfer it to the smaller bowl.
· The bowl cannot be moved, shaken, or stirred.
· When no target beads are visible, the team can choose to sacrifice a player in order to mix up the bowl and expose more target beads.
· The game ends when the sole surviving teammember runs out of visible target beads, or a team chooses to cease mining activities in order to preserve existing players.
· Points are tallied and the team with the most points wins.
1 bead = 1 point
1 player = 10 points

Wrap up:
The winning team explains how they acquired the most points.

Extension:
The game can be played again with a different target color. Scores from the second game can be compared with the first to draw inferences about probability.

Note:
Sorted beads can be acquisitioned for Water Cycle Game. Don’t you love it! Segue into Renewable Resources.