Andrew Greene

For the past two years, I have been using the Climate Change Mixer as part of the case study on climate change for my environmental justice unit. It has proven to be an extremely engaging and effective simulation. The first time I utilized it was in the Spring of 2020, when we were teaching remotely during the lockdown period. While I was hesitant to try it on Zoom, the activity proved to work very well in distance learning with good planning as to the use of breakout rooms.

In the Spring of this year, we were fortunately able to do the simulation in person and it worked even better. The students really played their parts well and after writing their post-activity reflections, they asked if it would be possible to do it again playing different roles.

I would really love to see this turned into an online game similar to the ones I have found on iCivics. If that were possible, students could engage in this activity not only in class, but by themselves online, playing different roles and gaining the value from that. However, even as is, it is an extremely effective, well structured simulation.