Moral Dilemmas as school activities

[yougi]

I'm an English as a Second Language teacher in Quebec (a French province of Canada), since September. I teach 17-20 years old, who are of a pretty good level.

We will finish this week an activity I created in my college years, and it was awesome. It is a mix between a reality show and Lost. Basically, it's the end of the world, and you have to choose 6 people to start the next civilisation with. You start with 12 characters, and the class votes to kick one every week.

Now, I'm wondering if you guys can think of any other interesting moral dilemmas activities of that kind (or any other original activities for that matter!)

For those interested, the 12 characters I created for that activity. Feel free to discuss about who you would choose.

http://www.xsnake.net/upload/THE%20BUNKER%20CHARACTERS%202k3.doc

[Headless_Ninja]

I'm going with the surgeon, the chemist (who seems to have god-like powers), the politician, the botanist, the construction worker and the farmer.

Moral dilemmas: food/water/medicine is scarce. Who needs it most? One character is taking over/imposing their views. How/should they be stopped?

[Thiel]

Make up a situation where one of the personalities would have to be sacrificed and have your students defend their choice. If that doesn't kick over a can of worms then I don't know what will.

[BizzaroStormy]

Moral Dilemma: (provided the end of the world was caused by a zombie apocalypse) You find a mute child with a bleeding leg, you cannot tell if he's been bitten of just injured. Do you kill him, attempt to treat his injuries, or leave him?

[Vagnarok]

Hmm, well you could have a non-valuable (survival wise) character get seriously injured. Someone could break both of their legs or something that would make them nearly completely useless. That way the students have to decide whether to waste the resources to help them recover or not.

[RandomNPC]

you should have people come in to play the parts and have the class tell each one who they want to kick out, and make them say goodbye while the person who was asked to leave fakes some tears and walks out.

[Krytha]

There's always the fun class struggle or perceived usefulness dilemma. The doctor in the group is ill, and so is the mechanic (generic labourer). Both are unconscious There are only enough supplies to treat one. Who is up to the group. Then if you want, you can add other variables like - the doctor is really weak and useless when it comes to building shelters, but the mechanic is very useful for building or fixing important machinery. Or perhaps the mechanic is very group oriented while the doctor is solely concerned with his own survival. Or you could even throw a time limit on - if the group doesn't decide within X minutes, they could both be braindead - something like that.

[Jokerz]

the chemist... creates new elements? No matter what, you should keep her around. She could invent time reversium and go back to when it didn't happen. But seriously, try a scenario when one somewhat vital character (like the botanist) is trapped, say, in a crevasse, and the doctor is the only one near to rescue the botanist before they die.

[Sub_Zero]

I like the sound of these choice making ones, but how about it all links. So if you for example get rid of the botanist, the next time they find a new plant, and someone has to test it, they end up ill, but if you'd kept the botanist they'd have lived

[Evil DM Mark3]

Looks quite interesting. I assume that the chemist can make new chemicals and drugs, not elements. An interesting problem to use might be the discovery of resources. The group finds a cache of alcohol/chocolate/fiction books, what do they do with it? Who, if anyone, gets some? Do they find a more useful use or do they use them for the intended job? I don't know where you are setting this but if they are near a coast and see a small boat in trouble out at sea in bad weather do they try and effect a rescue? Do they risk the possibility that there is someone or something on the boat and put themselves in danger?

My picks would be:

Keep

Army officer: Physically useful. Has both survival and leadership training.
Psychologist: Whilst somewhat vapid her skills are very useful.
Veterinarian: Has medial knowledge, even if for animals. Does not have the problems of the Surgeon.
Farm owner: Has skills that may well mean the difference between life and death for the group.
Chemist: We can get around the problems and her skills are very useful.
Construction worker: Yet another person with invaluable skills.

[Don Julio Anejo]

You guys need a McGuyver/Robinson Crusoe/Cyrus Smith type engineer... THAT guy would be invaluable..

I personally would keep:

The Jock (err... football player) - it's a toss up between him and Sarge. The latter has more useful skills such as training in survivalism (which probably also includes hunting). However, the Sarge is quite likely to be a total jackass, to order people around and have everyone hate him, which won't do much for the groups well being. Alcohol problem? Solved. Where are you going to get JD on a desert island?

The psychologist - well, not really, but I'm training to be one myself, and she does have the skills to make sure everyone gets along. Except the Sarge. He'll hate her. She sings too, which is good for entertainment every so often. But yeah, I'm biased.

The botanist (btw, botanist is Russian slang for geek) - may not know as much about farming as the farm girl and probably can't cook being a guy and all, but here's the kicker: it's an island. There's no ibuprofen or penicillin or other drugs. You NEED to know medicinal properties of plants, otherwise everything doctors know will be useless. Also, he probably knows more about which plants are easily domesticated, how to do so and how not to do so than the farm girl. Plus her skills rely a lot on modern inventions like pesticides and mechanical combines, just as doctors rely on modern medicines. And as for his gynophobia... Well, we do have a shrink on staff.

The construction worker - not only is he a very nice guy (which is very important in a closed system), he's probably the only person around who knows anything about how to build anything. Hell, even making a fence is really hard if you have no tools.

Dr. Doolittle - although I'd rather take the surgeon, this guy doesn't have AIDS. Why does it matter? Because it's also transmitted by through blood. Which means if the surgeon is injured in any way, you can't let her anywhere near anyone else who's injured.

Last one is hard. Out of compassion I would take the politician. However she isn't exactly useful for the groups survival since she's not only pregnant (a severe drain on resources, plus she can't work), but also has no useful skills except talking. So either her or the farm girl.

Who I didn't include: what's the point of having a chemist? Unless everyone has meth addiction, there isn't much she can make (especially with no resources) that would help with immediate survival. And after immediate problems are solved, everyone being friends and getting along is more useful than potentially making gunpowder.

The priest has the same role as a psychologist, but this guy seems more like a politician ("most promising priest of the generation" means he's ambitious). Plus he'll probably bother people about sins they've committed or are about to commit.

The martial artist - both the Sarge and the Jock have more useful skills.

[Vagnarok]

For my 6, I chose 3 men and 3 women to start the my little town. Keep in mind that I'm actually choosing people for a situation that wouldn't involve kicking anyone off.

The men:

Mr. Zui Yan, the Construction Worker.
-He has valuable shelter building skills.
-He's in good shape and his pleasant disposition will be a big help.

Sgt. John Robinson, the Officer
-Great fitness
-Great survival skills
-His leadership skills will be good for governing a larger amount of people.
-The psychologist can help him recover from his relationship. This plus the fact that we're not bringing his EX effectively removes this downside (it takes two people to kill a relationship!)

Dr. Arthur Bradley, the Veterinarian.
-He trumps the surgeon because he doesn't have AIDs
-Valuable medical knowledge
-His fitness will be important
-He has high genetic value
-His age isn't a large factor as males' reproduction isn't as affected by age



I didn't pick the Jock because it's shockingly easy to make alcohol, and he doesn't have many survival skills. The botanist would be great for finding food, but his skills are replaced by the sarge. He would also not be able to mate. The priest can't do much, I guess he could tell us about jesus, but I would care a whole lot more about eating food in a shelter than that.

The women:

Ms. Melody Briggs, the Psychologist
-High intelligence = high genetic value
-Psychologists are excellent counselors and have good understandings of leadership
-Teaching self defense requires physical fitness, which is very important

Ms. Suzie Reid, the Martial Artist
-Martial Artists that perform at such high levels have extremely high genetic value in physical and mental attributes
-Again, physical fitness is SO important for this!
-She will be able to stay calm in the face of crises

Ms. Sarah Branco, the Farmer
-Low intelligence can be compensated by mating with those with high intelligence
-Less intelligent people are very useful for jobs that don't require higher brain functions
-agricultural skills will be useful for when the community has passed beyond hunting/gathering (after about 5-8 years or so)

The obese chemist? yeah right! Talk about a specialized skill set. Her machine could easily break, and I don't think it could just magically make H2O molecules without some source of fuel. I left behind the pregnant woman because of the strain that it would put on the Sgt, and also because the community wouldn't be able to support a pregnant woman for at least a year. Lastly, the surgeon would have been great, but she's too old to reproduce and having AIDs is just about the worst downside possible. It could spread to the entire group if they weren't careful, and they would possess no medication. Also, her skill set is effectively replicated by the Vet.

For this civ to work, all men must mate will all women to produce the most varied genetic pool possible. Also, since mating with those that share only 1/4 of your genetic material isn't deleterious, I hope you don't mind having kids with your first cousins! (Any closer than 1/4 genetic material would be considered incest).

[Bonecrusher Doc]

My question is, when you "kick one person off" each week, is this just the narrowing-down process before you select the six people to go into the apocalypse bunker/spaceship, or are you restarting civilization with 12 and then gradually narrowing it down to 6. If so, how are you doing it... exile? cannibalism? It depends if you want this to be strictly an academic exercise of who is the most useful, or will compassion be invoved? Whatever the case, should be cool.

One thing that could affect the discussions a bit is if you start them out assuming that they will have everything the old civilization left behind - tools, medicines, etc. - then change it up, saying they will be in the middle of the wilderness with NOTHING. I mean, not even a butter knife or an extra shoelace. Then tell them there is/will be an extreme of weather - perhaps drought, perhaps blizzard. Then have the wolves start hunting them. Then have one of them get sick or have a nervous breakdown.

For another twist, one week instead of just kicking somebody off you could have the option of sacrificing someone in exchange for a very useful item, say, a hospital tent well-stocked with supplies, or instead allow them to keep the person for a total of 7 people in the end but get no supplies.

[Inigo Montoya]

Kick off the chemist. Poor social skills is something you don't need at the end of the world.

As for moral dilemmas, you could have a religous breakdown between the priest and the athlete, and them trying to play the other survivors against the other. Or, you could have them become slightly disterbed, and create a cargo cult.

[Evil DM Mark3]

Quick question, how do you "make water portable" exactly?