Simulation Game
  Background: STEP found that the basic idea for the simulation game is beneficial to students, but that it wasn't thoroughly developed. Students tend to ask very specific questions about the economic histories of companies, and they like to have numbers to work with. This is true for every grade level especially the younger students. With this in mind, STEP did some research on cattle and lumber companies, but numbers and statistics have not been found for the other groups interested in the land. If your group finds any appropriate statistics, please tell us of your findings.
 

Grade Level: third grade-adult

Duration: 1 l/2 hours to 3 1/2 hours (Must be flexible in order to allow time for brainstorming)

Materials: Photocopies from The World Wildlife Fund's teacher's curriculum, paper and pencils.

Subjects: humanities, economics, science, government

Skills: leadership, decision making, small and large group work, compromise, forensics, thorough thought process

Objective: Students will gain an understanding of how tropical rainforests are being used and destroyed and why companies are interested economically in the rainforest for profit.

Note: STEP borrowed this game from The Wor1d Wildlife Fund (see Resource List) but felt that students needed additional information (including hard facts) about the histories of the various companies; this required a bit of research on our part, but we haven't been able to construct histories for all the companies. (see Rainforest Facts.)

Method: Complete instructions are included in the packet, but basically the students are divided into group representative of the different companies which are interested in buying a piece of rainforest land which is for sale. Another group representing a government council must decide which group (lumber co., cattle co., pharmaceutical co., national park service, native peoples, banana and coffee co., or scientists/researchers) will receive the land.