Gammon publishes peer-reviewed role-play classroom game

The classroom activity designed by Dave Gammon, professor of biology, for an Elon COR capstone course has been added to a national collection of case studies.

After he was hired by Elon in 2006, Professor of Biology Dave Gammon felt inspired by the amazing classroom activities developed by numerous faculty members. He was particularly impressed by his observations of role-play games (e.g., Tony Crider in physics, Megan Squire in computer science, Peter Felten in history) and case studies in science (e.g., Kathy Gallucci in biology, Linda Niedziela in biology, Jen Uno in biology, Tonya Train in biology, Amanda Chunco in environmental studies).

After observing these activities, Gammon wanted to get in on the fun. With coaching from Kim Shively (acting), Chris Harris (finance), Eric Bauer (biology), and others, he developed an interdisciplinary role play game, “Oil in the Amazon,” for the students in his COR capstone course. Student outcomes were so positive, he refined the game and submitted it to the peer-reviewed collection of case studies curated by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, where it was recently accepted.

In this game, students assume the roles of various stakeholders in a proposed oil and gas project in southeastern Peru. Each player is given unique objectives, secrets and readings, and the outcome is determined by player decisions made during the game.

The three “capitalist” players do their best to move the development project forward, the two “oppositionist” players try to thwart them, and the three “neutral” players play key roles in determining final decisions. As they play students learn the importance of tradeoffs, compromise, power and information disparities, understanding diverse viewpoints, and keeping the big picture in mind. The game’s content intersects heavily with environmental studies, geology, business, policy studies, anthropology, and interdisciplinary studies, and it could work in high school through graduate school classrooms.