Try these "mini" simulations

1. This exercise is to help us to see how much we could be captive to a worldivew shaped by the Enlightenment, rather than to a worldview shaped by the Bible:


2. Making paper aeroplanes: Finding organizational fit

Picture from http://www.bestpaperairplanes.com



3. How does your tea taste? or Let's Shake to it (The Rapid Spread of HIV in society)

4. How many squares do you see? (Appreciating multiple perspectives, defining reality and to appreciate the relationship between systems)

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality...." (Max DuPree in Leadership is an Art)

5. Animals in Community
(this is a short version of Bafa Bafa, a cultural prejudice awareness educational simulation or Barnga, which is another educational simulation about cultural clashes.

6. Hungry Decisionsby Charles R. Kishpaugh & Pauline E. Goodfellow

7. The Near Beer Game - an adaptation of the famous MIT simulation game popularized by Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline

Games and learning

There is a movement called game based learning which is quite popular. There are a couple of big name advocates for the idea.

One is Marc Prensky who has written a book called Digital Game based learning. Marc is also quite famous for coining the term digital native and digital immigrant with an immigrant accent.

The other big name is Thiagi. I have an old classmate who studied at U of Indiana for an MSc in Instructional Design listened to Thiagi give a talk and was quite impressed. He has a website where he has made game ideas available for free.

How many squares do you see?

Perspectives on life

Simulations

Simulation games try to reproduce some aspect of reality - poverty situations, power struggles in government, ecological problems, etc - so the people participating will be better able to understand that one life area, and perhaps through understanding they will make better, wiser decisions with that area

-Marlene LeFever, Creative Teaching Methods, p 149

EXPERIENCES THAT CREATE A THIRST FOR LEARNING...When you put simulations into your curriculum, you establish a new contract with your students. You are saying it is no longer sufficient to just memorize and recall facts, you must learn to deal with values, feelings, and use higher order cognitive skills to solve problems and make judgments.
Learning Through Experience Simulation Training Systems

ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL EDUCATIONAL SIMULATION
http://www.creativeteachingsite.com/simconcept.htm

Simulations: An Overview By Paula Christopher

Clark Aldrich’s Six Criteria of an Educational Simulation


Hungry Decisions hosted by churchworldservice

Literature
Using Simulations to Promote Learning in Higher Education: An Introduction (John Paul Hertel , Barbara Millis)