This is our pond!
The pond close to your city might not be exist anymore in a short time. The land was bought by a businessman, who wants to build a new shopping centre there. Inhabitants of the city are divided into three opinion parties (supporters of the shopping centre, opponents of the shopping centre, experts). The future of the pond can be yet decided by a referendum following a discussion between all three parties. So go to the field and collect data, which support your opinion.
Target group
- Teenagers (cca. 13 – 18 years)
- Young adults (cca. 17 – 26 years)
- Youth workers
- Teachers
Content
It is a role play game, which combines field work and discussion. The participants will learn the whole process which should come before presenting their opinion on the local level (collection of documents, research, work with inputs, presentation of the results, etc.). The main aim is develop competence of creating result based on a variety of input data. Of course the competences of teamwork (or managing the team), presentation of one’s own opinion and creation of a common conclusion among different opinion groups will be developed during this method as well. The participants will directly see that even though the same input data are used, their final results can be completely different, thanks to the fact, that the process of their filtration and processing is influenced by one’s own opinion; this could lead to a wrong conclusion in the end.
Thanks to the field-work element of this method we can use an existing local problem during its course, whereas it does not need be the pond, it could also be a park, forest, old house on the square, etc. The participants will thus get more familiar with their own city and local issues.
This is the content we use with the method. However, the method can be used for other content, too.
Materials
Pencils, paper, cameras (or voice recorders), PCs, beamer, literature (atlas of plants, the key for determining water animals, books on history of the place, etc.)Specific Environment
Field (surroundings of a pond, lake, city), seminar roomSpecific goals
Raising the level of skills that are useful/helpful for youth to their social involvement/participation ( such as self-confidence, leadership, …); Motivation, support and encouraging young people to engage into initiatives groups, Non-Governmental organizations, volunteering, youth councils and other bodies to act socially for the local communities; Advise young people how to put their entrepreneurial ideas into social practice (e.g. presentation of project methodology, strategical planning, etc.)Description
Fieldwork (around the pond/lake), 3–5 hours
We describe the main topic: The pond is going to be dried out, filled up by debris and in its place a new shopping centre will grow. On one hand the number of working opportunities will rise, on the other hand the city will lose a recreational area. Clearly, there is no “right” solution.
The participants will split up into three groups:
- Supporters of the shopping centre – they see the economic benefit of the investment, positive impact of the pond for the life in the city is none in their view and they do everything for the approval of building of the shopping centre.
- Opponents of the shopping centre – according to them, the economic impact of the investment will be none, on the other hand the city would lose an important recreational area; it may even come to the disruption of the function of the ecosystem. They are willing to do everything, so the construction does not start, even lie down in the way of the bulldozers.
- Experts – a group of scientists living in the city; for them, science always has to be objective and unbiased. They look at the problem from the view of data and its objective evaluation. What is the real biological and social value of the pond and what is the real benefit of the planned shopping centre? The experts have no own opinion on the situation.
In the field each group’s task is to collect data in support of their opinion. They can use a public opinion poll among local inhabitants or their statements. They also take the whole pond into consideration using the optics of their opinion (pond’s fauna and flora, its usability for recreational purposes, accessibility from the city centre, etc.). They can also use publicly available sources about the specific location. Here it is good to give the group as little instructions as possible and let them use their creativity. The outcomes can have the form of statistics, texts, photos, videos, etc.
Outcome: Every group has complete data, which they use for the creation of a presentation defending their opinion.
Data processing (seminar room), 2–3 hours
The participants process the data, which they collected in the field (they prepare graphs, select photographs, edit videos and create presentations).
Outcome: Every group has results generated from the data and prepared presentation for defending their opinion.
Closure (seminar room), 1.5 hours
Every group has a 15 minutes long presentation, which is based on data, they gathered in the field. Questions of the other opinion parties follow. In the end all groups should come to a common conclusion, weight all individual statements, which support the individual options. Different methods can be used for this and we should select one which is suitable for us, as well as our group. For example, a panel discussion is one of the options.
Feedback (seminar room), 0.5 hours
Outcomes and its measurability
Project in which the method has been used
We usually use this method in work with talented youth, where our main aim is to simulate the process of creation of one’s own opinion of the participants already from the moment of data collection.