Reacting to the Past: Food or Famine
By Carl Ohrenberg
Carl Ohrenberg is Professor of Chemistry and Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Leadership (CTLL).
The president of Zambia argues with the King of Lesotho as the leaders of five African countries try to decide whether they should accept food donations from the United States consisting of genetically modified corn. All the while, invited scientists, directors, and representatives provide conflicting information and viewpoints.
A regulator from the European Union casts doubts upon the safety of the genetically modified organisms. The Director of the African Smallholder Farmers Group claims that there are enough local sources for food and that accepting the crops will suppress the economy, resulting in serious financial consequences. Meanwhile, scientists from the USDA are claiming that the crops are safe to eat and won’t harm the ecological balance of the region, and the Director of the World Health Organization is urging the African nations to accept the donation to feed their people.
“If we reject it my people will starve,” states one African leader.
“If we accept it our future economy will be ruined,” replies another.
All of this was taking place not in Africa but in a chemistry classroom last spring as students role-played a very real situation that occurred in southern Africa in 2002. The students were participating in a game published by Reacting to the Past. The game was the culminating activity of the semester and was played out over the last three weeks of a special topics course addressing chemistry and ethics, the environment, and politics. Through the game, students were able to experience what happens when science meets politics in a real-life situation where decisions made have serious ramifications.
Reacting to the Past is research-based active learning pedagogy designed to engage students by immersing them in real historical events. Each student is assigned the role of a real person with clear goals, such as the King of Lesotho, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, or a member of the Kansas board of education. In order for the students to “win,” they must communicate, collaborate, think critically, and plan. Each Reacting to the Past game—whether it involves the debate over evolution or climate change, the American Revolution, or famine in Africa—has both strong writing and oral components. The games vary in length from just a few class periods to entire semesters and can be used in both large and small classes.
After playing a Reacting to the Past game at a conference several years ago I was hooked. I have wanted to use this pedagogy in my classroom for some time and facilitating Food or Famine, the game described above, was my first opportunity to do so. Overall, it was a great experience for both my students and for me. The students navigated the balance of science, ethics, and politics through a real event drawn from world history. Comments from my students include:
“Playing this game helped me understand the bigger picture and how factors like politics, trade, ethics, and the overall well-being of people can be combined to form such a complex issue,” and
“It was engaging, thought-provoking, and educational. Losing the debate was disappointing, but it also felt realistic, good ideas don’t always win, and it isn’t a black and white world, there are a lot of grey areas that need to be considered.”
As for myself, I learned a great deal about how to facilitate the game and how to incorporate the writing and oral assignments into the class. I look forward to using a second game (Kansas, 1999) about teaching evolution in public schools this spring in a senior seminar course and I encourage you to explore Reacting to the Past games as well.