Land Mine Field Simulation Game
The following learning game was featured twice at a Global Education Conference held in Ottawa on April 12, 1996. Both sessions were for grades 6-8, but the gam works with older students (and adults!) As well. It's a great way to bring home the devastating impact of land mines and the need to strengthen international law in this area.
The "field" is a blue tarp measuring 20 x 24 feet. It is covered in numbers from 1-100 (like a ten square grid but without the grid lines - just numbers). One side is a river and the field cannot be entered from that side.
The person(s) running the game has a master map of where the mines are in each of the three simulations. The students are told that there are 15-20 mines somewhere on the field. Volunteers are invited to walk on the field. As the student steps on a number - they cannot jump over any of the numbers - they call out the number. If they step on a mine, they sit down on that number and someone else gives it a try.
In the first simulation, the "field" represents a community. Three numbers represent Home, School, and the Market Place - the places students would travel to and from on a given day. The task is to walk from one place to the next without hitting a mine. Usually the first few students start at home and try to walk to school, which is fairly easy to do. The next path is from either school to the market or from home to the market. The market is the most heavily mined.
In the second simulation, the "field" is just a field. One square on the tarp represents a well, pile of wood or piece of machinery that is needed on a regular basis. The students can enter the field from any side except the river, and must make it to the well and back. Of course, that area is heavily mined and it is difficult to do.
In the third simulation, the students start at one end of the tarp and must make it across the "field" to the river. Several people are allowed on the tarp at the same time, so it is not as easy to decide where to step as there is the added distraction of other people moving in various directions. The river is, of course, heavily mined.
After each stage of the game there is a quick debriefing about why one area was more heavily mined that another and how this would impact on a person's daily life. Sometimes students offer tips on how to negotiate the field, suck as watching where the previous people have stepped.
At the end of the game there is a longer debriefing which focuses on how the land is rendered dangerous and unusable by the presence of the mines. There is also discussion of what it felt like to try and walk on the field and how one might approach this in real life. The students often comment that they would toss rocks ahead of them to try and figure out where the mine are. This becomes a good opportunity to point out the reality of living in an area that is still mined. For example, it would take hours to walk to school if you tossed a rock at every step and consequently you can't live your life like that. Of course, it is also the case that you need more than a small rock to set off the mine in the first place.
The game is preceded by a discussion of what a land mine is and followed up with a video and a case study of a country suck as Cambodia. It takes about an hour in total for the game and accompanying discussion.
For a detailed description of the game including sample tarp lay-out and mine placement, contact Hilary Homes, 138 Stewart St., Ottawa Ontario K1N 6J5 Canada. Please include an international reply coupon if writing from outside Canada