Thursday, April 10, 2008
Mine Time
Today has been a long and busy day, but not without its highlights. One of the many good aspects of today was a long anticipated lab that I did with my ecology students. I had set up tubs of dirt that were landscaped - and boy were they cute. Each plot of land had beans and peanuts buried in it. My students were then giving instructions on how to mine for the beans. They were allowed to buy equipment and I was allowed to fine them when they tried to bend the rules. We actually lost time and nearly did not have enough time to clean up our lab stations. Tomorrow we will conclude our simulation - see how much money our miners made - and do the follow up discussion and questions. All in all, it was a great lab. The kids really got into it and had fun. I enjoyed watching them as each team employed their own strategy. Plus, it was a lot of fun to fine people.
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4 comments:
What did they have to pay you when you fined them? More beans? (JK!!!)
Sounds like a fun lab. :)
It was a lot of fun. We finished it up today. I had to fine one of the kids for eating the peanuts that he found.... even after I told them that they were old peanuts!
Eeww..
again, what type of currency do you use for the fine? Seriously, are they old peanuts? :P
Or did you give them fake moneys.
I am teaching one of my clients how to count money right now. I snuck in a real nickle amongst the fake ones, and he thought he hit the jackpot! I told him that if he could 'buy' 4 of the items that I had with the fake money, he could keep the nickle. He did really well after that. Its all about the motivation... yup yup.
Of course your motivation is old peanuts... which is obviously a good motivator for one of your more... hungry students.
they used beans, noodles, and peanuts as currency. If they broke the peanut open it was worth more. If they broke the beans open it too was worth more. They could spend their profit at the store to get better supplies with which to mine with. Each "day" was a minute long. If they messed with their minning site any other time I could fine them. There were toy animals on their land - and if they killed them they were fined too (A few groups mannaged to burry their animals). I also was able to fine groups for contaminating their water supply. All in all it was a lot of fun. No real money. At the begining they bid on the property they wanted to mine - that was entertaining to watch.
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