Sustainability is a topic that needs to be better understood, especially globally. Two opposing viewpoints tend to dominate the conversation. On the one hand, some believe we need to extract as many resources as possible to make them cheaper for the marketplace, which keeps prices lower for consumers. However, this perspective often needs to pay more attention to the environmental impacts of resource acquisition and tends to only worry about the supply once the problem is immediate. On the other hand, some prioritize the environment over human suffering and quality of life. This viewpoint often sees all human industry actions as evil and fails to understand the importance of equity within sustainability initiatives. Solutions presented by this viewpoint are often a one-size-fits-all approach and do not consider a nation's ability to support such initiatives when they struggle to meet basic demands. This game's main lesson is that problems are rarely black and white, and we must employ a more nuanced perspective.

The rules of the game are deceptively simple. This resource acquisition game only has a couple of rules, but once the students begin playing, they almost always fail collectively the first couple of times. It is not until later in the game that they realize "how to play the game" so they can still compete without completely losing it. The game is an elegant metaphor for how humans interact with the environment, either sustainably acquiring resources or ruining them through overproduction.

Materials: 

·      An ample open space

·      Lots of tennis balls (a bucket of fifty should be enough)

·      Lots of mini disc cones

o   I would have at least twice as many students playing the game

·      Colored disc dots

Minimum Number of Students Needed: While four or five students can theoretically play this game, they would quickly become exhausted. A better number of students would be closer to twelve students, while an entire class would be the most fun.

Age: All Ages