The Independent Center for Integrative Education: Learning without Limits
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The Natural Philosophy Workshop
Edmonton, AB, March 23 - April 1, 2010
For the original event site please click here
The workshop was offered in
the format of 4 independent sessions a day aimed at different age groups. For
the sake of reference, we called the groups Kilobytes (Kb, for suggested age
6 to 10), Megabytes (Mb, 9 to 13), Gigabytes (Gb, 12 and up), and Colloquium (Coll,
for everybody who was able to participate in discussion for about 90 min.)
For the older students
(Mb and Gb), the workshop was organized around a specific
practical task that is complex enough to include many various steps that
require analytical tools provided by different "subjects."
We discussed a travel to Mars in order to build there a colony.
We focused on the physics and math
related to the travel, the economy of the travel, ecology,
team psychology, and many other issues to which the students expressed interest.
At all times, references to literature, philosophy, and science fiction
naturally popped up as "food for thoughts." We relied on such activities as facilitated
discussions, role play, and Internet research among others.
For the younger students (Kb),
the focus was on the interactive play with imaginary situations
that required analysis, decision making, and especially problem-solving skills.
On our mission to Mars we and our students faced many challenges:
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we needed to raise money for the project,
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we had to interview and hire the crew,
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we needed to build and navigate our rocket ship,
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we had to survive in Space and to provide for our basic needs,
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we were building new state with its political structure, government, constitution,
law and law enforcement and even its own flag
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we had to come up with financial system
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we were marketing our colony as a tourist destination and
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we had to make a historical decision about Martians and their well-being.
We overcame our troubles by using the knowledge we already possessed
as well as learning things anew. The workshop consisted of 3 independent
groups building 3 independent colonies. Before we have started,
we planed our workshops on the same "grid" for each group:
the outlining idea was the same with most of activities alike.
As you read, you can get a feeling , of how the different
groups took us into different direction. Even starting in the same spot,
we ended up in three different places. In the Mb group, a mere discussion
of our motivation to go to Mars almost led us to abandoning the Mars mission
altogether and replaceing is with establishing a deep sea colony instead.
Hadn't Mars won the vote, we would have never hesitated to replace
heights by depths.
As we moved from day to day, Nadia made a conspectus of our journey.
We were so busy working and having fun, that reaching out for camera,
which was just a hand length away, was too much. Thus, we do not have
many pictures to post here. Detailed Nadia's conspectuses for each of the
three groups are following.
KILOBYTES was a group of 3 to 7-years-old (we originally planed to have kids 6 to 10 in it)
DAY 1:
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How do we get to Mars?
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Aiming at the Moon game
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Nadia is the Moon, orbiting the Earth (Valery)
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the big ball is our ship that has to meet with Moon - land on it
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How do we go to Mars? - discussion:
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on foot
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by car
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from a sling or cannon
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by plane
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building paper planes to see why it won't work
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by rocket
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demonstration of the principle of the rocket fuel
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chair on wheels+ bag of sand in a fabric bag to demonstrate reactive force
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air balloons as rockets
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What do we need to live on the Moon?
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space suits
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to build a dome
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sketch of the dome
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Landing game (accelerate-decelerate into the wall)
DAY 2
On the Moon:
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different gravity
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Moon walk game
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game: assisted jumps supported by rubber bands
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building the dome
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game: creating one with chairs and a bed sheet
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selecting the crew
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psychological compatibility tests (games):
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long spoons test - ability to collaborate
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vacuum cleaning - mutual help, and initiative
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pillows - sharing environment and compromising on comfort
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natural resources
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finding iron
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game: magnetic probes on "helicopters" to find iron ore
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building a ship to get to Mars
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Communicating with Earth
DAY 3
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Circle time:
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your neighbor's name
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Sonia loves Saskatoon game
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Rebuild the rocket: bigger for new crew members (we had new participants joining us):
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Trajectories
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Mars on a string and a ship on the string demonstration
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Orbiting big planets
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active games where adults were planets with gravity and children were traveling between us
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Designing Martian dome:
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bigger and why
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ecosystem in the dome
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Building the dome
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larger, with ecosystem/biocenosis
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again with the bed sheet
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genetic engineering inside the dome
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drawing pictures of animals and plants we may enjoy on Mars
DAY 4
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Circle time
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Social structure of the colony
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what kind of government we want?
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Demonstrations in game of
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dictatorship : Simon says
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Monarchy: cutting apple
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democracy: vote is there life on Mars?
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Deciding on democracy
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Meeting the Martian (costumed character)
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how to convince it that we are friends?
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Flag as a symbol of our colony
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drawing flags inside the dome
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Writing a constitution:
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3 main rules:
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Don't kill
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don't be mean
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don't do to others what you don't like to be done to yourself
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Name for the colony
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Marsotopia
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Martian Home
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Grassland
DAY 5
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Encoding
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send the coded message to Earth
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Martian found! A=1 b=2 etc.
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Decoding the response
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Game: Big Mess with letters that after “decoding” make a message “totally awesome!”
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Other planets of Solar System
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interactive "lecture"
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characteristics and differences
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States of matter
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Game Molecules
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we are molecules and act according to the temperature changes
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Back to Earth
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draw reports and present them
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MEGABYTES was a group of 7 to 13-years-old children.
DAY 1
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Introduction
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Why would we go to Mars (and not to the bottom of the ocean)?
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How do we go to Mars?
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on foot
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by car
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from a sling or cannon
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by plane
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building paper planes to see why it won't work
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by rocket
-
demonstration of the principle of the rocket fuel
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chair on wheels+ bag of sand in a fabric bag
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balloons as rockets
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Route
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Aiming at the Moon
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Large ball as a moon and smaller ball as a ship that has to hit the moon - land on it
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Landing
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accelerate-decelerate game
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Making a list of things we would need on Moon
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individual lists
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summary on the board
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How to pack it all in the ship?
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draw sketches f the rocket ship with the stuff inside
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On the Moon: Moonwalk
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rubber band-supported jumps
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Communicating with Earth
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The speed of the Moon helps to launch the rocket to Mars
DAY 2
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How are we going to survive on Moon?
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The Moon Station
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where to live
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how to breathe
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oxygen: brought from earth or from rocks
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energy
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no oil, no coal, no wind
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the Sun energy, days and nights on the Moon
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what to drink
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water from Earth or from Moon rocks
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Finance the expedition: ask for money
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venture capitalist
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big company
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government
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What are we going to eat?
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bring food
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terraforming inside the dome
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animals as food
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Choosing the crew
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Psychological compatibility tests:
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long spoons test - collaboration
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vacuum - sharing the load
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Who will we need in the colony?
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What expertise we need depends on what awaits us on Mars
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List of professions
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Interview process explanation
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interviewing applicants to the mission
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Trajectory of the flight to Mars
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The Moon, Earth and Sun, other planets speed us up to Mars, we control direction, not a speed. We don't fly by a straight line, don't aim at Mars to get there
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game: adults - planets with gravity, children -rocket ship. Planets change rocket’s trajectories
DAY 3
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build a ship to take us to Mars
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we need to have an artificial gravity
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life support during the flight, hibernation
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no landing on Mars!
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Mothership on the orbit and shuttles to the planet
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Flag as a symbol of the colony
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make our own flag
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personal project on paper
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presenting and explaining the flag
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all the flags on Martian surface
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Meet the Martian
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Befriend Martian
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show her how did we came here:
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orbital flying: gravitation of big planets deviates from straight orbits
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explanation on the board of how did we came here
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we are friends
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natural recourses
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Iron finding
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magnetic probes on helicopters to find iron ore
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Terraforming Mars
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atmosphere
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CO2 and water from asteroids
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ecosystem (plants and animals)
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Genetically engineered plants and animals
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in teams of 3 draw a picture of a Martian animal or plant
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defend your project
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how does your project will be interfering with other engineered
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Communication
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atmosphere is too thick to communicate, particles of sand brake radio, we can see, but can't hear: we need to communicate non verbally
DAY 4
Political organization of the colony.
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Discussion of what regime we would like to establish on Mars
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what kind of regimes we know and what are they?
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Demonstrations in game of
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Dictatorship : Simon says
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Monarchy: cutting apple
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Democracy: vote
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president tells us what to do and we vote if we want to do it
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election of a president :
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candidates present their platforms
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we vote for a candidate
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once president is elected he tell us what to do and we democratically decide if we want to follow his orders.
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Constitutional monarchy versus democracy discussion
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Democratically voted on democracy
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Writing a constitution
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Constitution this group wrote was :
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Do not do upon others what you don't like to be done to yourself
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No polluting
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If it ain't broken don't fix it.
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Taxation
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do we need taxes?
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Group work : design a taxation system
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Do we need money?
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Why there are money?
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trade vs. barter
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Finance lecture
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Loan: get money to spend now and pay later
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I o u note
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reselling promise
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how are we going to build our society? On trust.
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how to know if one can be trusted?
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Credit record
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Start with trusting
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Do we need to populate our colony? How?
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Open up immigration to Mars
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How could people immigrate to Mars?
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Parameters and procedure for immigration, criteria.
Brake for 10 minutes
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Red vs. Green debate
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Yesterday we have discovered that there is life on Mars. Today we have 2 political parties having different views on who should live under the domes: us or Martians. Green party believes in terraforming Mars and putting Martians in reservations under domes, Red party suggests we stay under the domes.
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Preparation for political debate
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lecture: verbal and non-verbal messages
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3 volunteers to represent each of 2 parties. Parties have 10 minutes to prepare their platform.
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electorate uses this 10 minutes to prepare the questions for politicians
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Parties have 1 minute to deliver their platforms
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Debate
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parties take turn answering questions of citizens
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parties are not trying to convince each other, as the opponents views could not be changed, but electorate.
DAY 5
Economic structure of the colony
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What kind of economy do we need?
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Different types of economical structures
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centralized
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game:
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a list of supplies available to the expedition on the board
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present your requests: a personal list of supplies needed
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Distribution of the supplies: how to decide and who is to decide.
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Bartering
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game: group divided in 3 groups, each group has a list of things they have and list of things they need. Find barter to get all you need
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monetary system
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game: the same as above, but each group is given 10c and supplies are priced
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it is much faster process!
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What can we do to invite the capital to our colony?
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Make Mars a tourist destination
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Marketing Mars as tourist attraction.
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Lecture on marketing
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teamwork
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Each team has to prepare an advertising campaign to sell Mars to tourists from Earth.
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Marketing presentations of each group
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Law-enforcement
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discussion of the law-enforcement system
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Impersonation:
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crooks stole computers and taken to the court
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Trail: Judge, jury and lawyers
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Game Mafia
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good citizens are trying to find out how is mafia.
As a last accord we share a symbolic meal that makes us a symbolic ``family``
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GIGABYTES was a group of students between ages 13 and 18.
DAY 1
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Why do we go to Mars?
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we shell be able to start anew and build perfect country
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Summary: how are we going to get there, where do we get things
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energy
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dome
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Moon as an intermediate station
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Financing:
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sell the project to the People (government financing)
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individuals are trying to convince government (the rest of group) to give grant to the mission
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Sell the project to a venture capitalist
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Adina as a tycoon Mrs. McDonald, others are trying to convince her to give us money
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The list of professions we would need on our mission for the future hiring process
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Communication with Earth
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Hiring professionals for the mission
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Oral resumes of applicants (Identities changed to comply to the needs of Mars Mission)
Homework: Internet research of the questions we could not answer today at the class (Uranium on Mars, Sun energy on Mars, …) and prepare paper resumes
DAY 2
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Homework research discussion
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How the Mars spaceship differs from the one we need to go to the Moon?
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The trajectory of the flight
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How will we get materials we need?
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No plastic materials, silicon organic instead
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Glass from sand
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Iron from the ore
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Search for iron ore
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magnetic probes on helicopters
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Selecting the Crew
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discuss the resumes
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anonymous resumes read and criticized
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what are we looking for
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explanation how the interviewing process works for both sides: applicant and interviewer
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Psychological compatibility
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game Spoons: eat with the spoons that are longer then arm’s length
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game Associations: get tuned to your partner
DAY 3
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Interactive lectures on hard science
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space travel
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where should we lunch our rocket ? Trajectory of space travel
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how many shuttles from orbit to Mars? Redundancy.
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Why don't we land on Mars's moon and orbit with it? Optimization
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Geostationary orbit!
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New flag:
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we need a flag.
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small group or individual work to design new flag for our colony that would represent us and our mission
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Presentation: explain your flag
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mechanics of rocket engine
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what is pushing the rocket?
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Balloon as an example
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Push away from sand bag exercise
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Where is a reaction happening? Equilibrium. make a hall and air streams out
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choice of fuel, why liquid vs. solid?
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Hiring process
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Interviewing the volunteers
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each candidate presents s\his resume and answers the questions of interviewers
DAY 4
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Midterm conference: How are we doing?
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do whatever it takes to make you comfortable except making noise: unwrapping food, dribbling the ball, and side conversations
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what we are doing at this workshop and why we use games and laughter
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having fun for rest and switching activities
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fun for learning: role play
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interviewing: this group has lost opportunity to learn
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the closer you are staying to a task the more fun comes from the role play
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what can we do differently to make it more productive?
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There is life on Mars! we meet Martian
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convince Martian that we are friends
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Colony on Mars: what can we do different on Mars?
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Write a new constitution
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elect our own government
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laws + law enforcement
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self-govern
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How to organize our colony?
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Even our fun activities have a learning potential: Why do we need a flag?
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Government: discussion of different types
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what regime to choose?
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games to demonstrate types of social structure:
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dictatorship? Simon says.
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Monarchy – apple cutting
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Anarchy - unstable
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constitutional monarchy
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Republic – no rich
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Democracy -representative vs. non representative.
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Vote if you want to do what president orders
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Run for president
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10 sec to present a platform
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Election: vote for president
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Non-representative democracy - yes!
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Consensus: how to make it so everybody agreed –society is not ready
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Money
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do we need money in the colony? Why did people came up with money?
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live without money
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Centralized distribution of goods
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Barter
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Lecture about societal need for money
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how do we do our money? - virtual money
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where do we get money?
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finance – lecture:
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trade of promise
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trust
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credit score
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economical necessity to trust
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interest
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inflation
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where government gets money?
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borrowing: bonds
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fines
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Taxation: How it works
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Prepare for the debate for tomorrow:
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Red party vs. Green party. Who should live under the dooms: we or they?
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Q and A:
DAY 5
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How can we raise money for the colony?
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lecture about marketing
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Marketing Mars as tourist attraction – teamwork: design your campaign
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Marketing competition
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3 teams
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present your add compassing.
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Debates Green vs. Red
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