Lesson 1: The fishing game (1)

Lesson description

Stage 1: Introduction to the fishing game

The teacher explains to the class that they will play a game that will simulate an important part of real life.

“Imagine that you are members of one of the four village communities living on the shore of the lake. There is plenty of fish in the lake, so you need not worry what to live on. Fishing is the only branch of the economy; you have no other source of income.”

The teacher may illustrate this introduction by a simple drawing on the board or flipchart, showing the lake, some fish, and the four fishing villages, each with a boat setting out from the shore.

“You go fishing throughout the season, but there is a close season in winter and spring to allow the fish population to recover. In these months, you must live on your supplies of dried fish and repair your boats and nets to be ready for the next season.”

The students then receive the Instructions on how to play the fishing game.

They form four groups of not more than six students per group. (If there are more than four groups, it is necessary to adapt the chart of results – see materials for teachers 4.3).

Each group acts as a team of fishermen. They are encouraged to give their boat a fancy name, and are given a record sheet to note down their catches.

The game is played in rounds that represent fishing seasons and close seasons during which the fish population recovers.

The teacher uses just one phrase to define the goal of the game, “Try to catch as many fish as possible.” This Instruction may be understood in different ways, but the teacher does not give any further hints, and leaves it to the students to decide on their fishing policy In lesson 3, the students will come back to this starting point.

At the beginning of the season, each group decides on the quota of fish that it wishes to catch. The maximum quota of fish is 15°/o per boat. As the fishing population at the beginning of the first season amounts to 140 tons, this means that the maximum catch per group is 21 tons. (Again, the limit per group must be adapted if more than four groups are taking part.)

The teacher gives no extra information on what will happen if each of the four groups goes to the limit and their total catch per group amounts to 84 tons. This is already part of the game: the students realise how little they know. They neither know what path their competitors will choose, nor do they know the reproduction rate of the fish population. If they wish, they can find out by themselves.

Stage 2: Fishing game

The first round begins. The groups discuss what quota to choose. After four minutes the teacher asks for the record sheets from the groups. He/she enters their quotas in the record chart, works out the tons caught by each boat and the total quota and catch in this first season (a pocket calculator or computer proves useful here). He/she enters the results in the chart and presents them to the students. The development of the fish Stocks and total catches is depicted in a diagram based on materials for teachers 4.4.

By referring to the growth table, he/she also teils the students what the total fish population is at the beginning of the second season.

The students are handed back their record sheets and work out their total catch over the seasons.

Experience has shown that students usually tend to go to the limits at the beginning of the game, so a total catch of 70 tons – half the fish population – is quite likely; it may be even higher. If the fish population has been depleted by half, it will recover to reach a new level of 94 tons. This means that the fish population has dropped by a third within one year. The curves on the diagram point sharply downwards and depict the imminent danger of a total exhaustion of the fish stock.

The students will now become aware of this threat. If they all make füll use of the maximum quota of 15%, the fish will be near to extinction in two or three seasons. The groups will discuss whether they should reduce their quotas to prevent total extinction. From this point on, every game develops differently, depending, for example, on age and gender.

The following rounds are played in the same way. During the next three rounds, the groups are not encouraged to communicate, but they may do so if they take the initiative. The teacher, as the manager of the game, gives the students some time, but insists on playing the next round after about 5 minutes; this depicts reality – when the season begins, the fishermen must do their job.

After a few rounds, the teacher may perform a “miracle” if the catches have diminished too fast, by adding some extra tons to the figure given in the growth table.

After the fourth round, the teacher encourages the groups to communicate if they have not yet done so.

Sometimes they will reach a joint decision, and sometimes they won’t. The groups decide whether and to what extent they wish to be bound by common agreements – as in real life.