By James Surgent, Seventh Grade Teacher at The Children’s School
Seventh graders at The Children’s School tackle complex global challenges through our fall project-based learning unit: The World Peace Game (WPG). This interactive simulation combines critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity to teach students how to navigate real-world dilemmas.
How the Game Works
The WPG features a four-tiered game board made of plexi-glass and wood with toys and other pieces designed to represent objects in the real world. The board represents global systems and crises, and students assume leadership roles within fictional governments or international organizations and are tasked with resolving 24 pre-set crises alongside emergent challenges. Students are given as little information as possible in the lead up to the game. The idea is to avoid creating preconceived notions and allow them the space to come up with novel solutions to the game’s many problems.
Developing Key Skills
The game cultivates decision-making and collaboration as students balance national interests with global stability. Through guided reflection, students learn to address ambiguity, analyze biases, and develop empathy.
There are no right answers to solving the twenty-four crises that are present at the start of the game or to the random problems that emerge from regular card draws and the knock-on effects from actions students take. Students must work together on solutions, and they are encouraged to think about the following questions whenever they consider an action or solution:
- Can you afford to pay for it?
- Can you deal with the consequences?
- Does it make sense?
For example, players confront ethical dilemmas, such as writing condolence letters for troops lost in simulated battles, fostering empathy for the human cost of decisions.
Some of the crises and moments in the game are missing information or are even purposely misleading in their presentation. Students have to use information from other sources, including each other, and their own intuition to suss out the truth.
Real-World Connections
Although fictional, the WPG mirrors global systems, prompting students to draw parallels with real-world issues. Discussions often spark new perspectives on current events, as students realize the interconnectedness of political, social, and environmental factors.
A great example of this is the flurry and anxiety that happens when discussing the use of nuclear weapons. While it is within the rules of the game to use them, students always manage to talk each other down before they are actually used.
Every year a different crisis or set of crises resonates more with the class. Often it’s a crisis that bears some resemblance to something happening in the real world at the time. More often though, the biggest points of discussion come from trying to solve a crisis that ends up being thornier than expected.
Student Growth and Reflection
Conflict and compromise are key aspects of the game. While some students might be inclined to avoid conflict, the nature of the game makes it hard to do so. The WPG helps students of all types confront conflict and learn how to use it as a tool for problem solving, rather than see it as something to be avoided. Compromise is often the only way to solve many of the crises. Students usually quickly catch on that they cannot only consider their interests if they wish to win the game.
Students typically realize somewhere in the middle of the game (or sooner!) that the way to win is by working together. They have a lot of power to affect change in the game on their own or even in their team, but without the help of others, they cannot win.
By the end of the game, students learn to compromise, cooperate, find creative solutions to problems with no clear answer, and, most of all, think outside of themselves and consider the greater good.
One student shared, “At first, I focused only on my country’s success. Over time, I realized we could only win by working together for the greater good.”
The World Peace Game is more than a simulation—it’s a transformative experience that equips students with the tools to navigate complexity, compromise, and leadership in both academics and life.
