The associate professor of biology presented his classroom simulation game during the week-long event at the National Center for Case Studies Teaching in Science.
Dave Gammon, associate professor of biology, recently attended a week-long summer workshop in Buffalo, New York at the National Center for Case Studies Teaching in Science. He presented a classroom simulation game he designed titled “Oil in the Amazon,” which is loosely based on actual events that took place in Peru during the late 1990s.
In the game, students divide into three teams: the Capitalists (Argentinian oil corporation Plus Petrol, Peruvian highway company, administration of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori), the Oppositionists (U.S.-based Conservation International, lawyer Roger Muro, who represents the Machiguenga tribe of hunter-gatherers) and the Neutrals (U.S.-based Inter-American Development Bank, and a Peruvian-based NGO in sustainable development). Each player is given secret motives and information.
The simulation game has been used so far in SCI121 and COR456 and normally takes two to three days. This game is suitable for classrooms in environmental studies, business, public policy and interdisciplinary studies, and it can be adapted for high school through graduate school. Amanda Chunco, assistant professor of environmental studies, and Kim Shively, assistant professor of performing arts, contributed to the development of the project.
Gammon’s trip was supported by CATL and Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences. He plans to publish this simulation game within NCCSTS’s peer-reviewed collection of case studies.