Survival!: A Portable Simulation That Encourages Failure

Abstract

This single-lesson simulation is designed to allow students to explore concepts related to bargaining, credible commitments, and the security dilemma in an anarchic environment. The simulation is designed assuming about 20 participants, divided into 4 groups, but is easily modifiable for either more groups or more participants. The goal of each group is resource acquisition, and a failure to acquire adequate resources can result in the elimination of group members from the simulation. Resource acquisition can be done either cooperatively or competitively. The design of this particular simulation is structured to make failure probable for a sizeable minority of participants. This design choice is intentional, as the simulation seeks to turn failure into a pedagogical device. Along with presenting the simulation itself, the piece also argues for the pedagogical merits of designing for failure in classroom exercises.

Keywords:

• active learning
• simulations
• failure
• pedagogy

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Victor Asal and Joseph W. Roberts for their encouragement and support in producing this manuscript, as well as the individual reviewers of this manuscript. Any remaining errors in the manuscript remain mine alone. Author has no known financial interests or tangential benefits connected to the following project.

Notes

1 Rock-paper-scissors is a hand game designed around three hand gestures—rock (represented by a closed fist), paper (represented by an open hand), or scissors (a fist with the index and middle finger extended). Players select one of the three gestures simultaneously (often by counting to three) and then compare their choices. Selecting the same hand gesture results in a tie, while selecting different hand gesture produces a winner. When comparing hand gestures, rock defeats scissors, scissors defeats paper, and paper defeats rock.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patrick L. Schoettmer

Patrick Schoettmer is an associate teaching professor in the Department of Political Science at Seattle University. He teaches a variety of courses, mostly in American politics but also including a multidisciplinary course that looks at state failure. Dr. Schoettmer additionally serves as the internship coordinator for the SU political science program.