Title: the Commons

Title: The Commons

Description: Students model an ocean ecosystem and see how humans affect the number of fish over a period of years. Students must work as a class to find an equitable solution for all the countries represented.

Materials: box of 600 toothpicks

Time Needed: one 50 minute class period

Teacher Background In the old English system, a commons was a central area where everyone in a village could graze their livestock. The sea is a commons, also. Countries with a seacoast can claim a 200 mile section of the sea as their jurisdiction but laws vary from country to country what can be done in this area. Some countries like Japan and the USA (in Alaska) overlap on their territory and occasionally “fish wars” have started over competition for fish. Fishing has had to be drastically reduced in the some parts of the world. An excellent article to support this activity is “Twilight of the Cod” in National Geographic.

Procedures: 1. Divide students into groups of 4. Have them pick a name for their “nation”. 2. Make a grid on the board or an overhead that looks like this:

Nation Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 Homer Marge Lisa Bart

3. Read the directions on the student sheet to the students. Discuss what a “commons” is. 4. Ask students if they want to set up any rules before the game begins. If so, the rules must pass by a majority vote. 5. Scatter the toothpicks evenly around the floor of your room. 6. Say go and watch out for rule breakers. You may want to appoint a fish sheriff. 7. Allow students to vote on new rules after each round. 8. Have students count the toothpicks in between rounds. Add more fish anywhere on the floor that there are fish remaining. Do not be surprised if all the fish are fished out of the ocean in a couple of rounds. 9. If time allows, let the students play a second time.

Title: The Commons name______Introduction: In the old English system, a commons was a central area where everyone in a village could graze their livestock. The sea is a commons, also. The open ocean is available to any country with access to a shoreline or who can get access to a shoreline. Whenever people share an area, issues arise. In this activity, you will use a model of the commons to discover what people need to do to maintain a sustainable harvest of fish.

Materials: toothpicks, whiteboard

Procedure:

1. Your group is a “nation”. Elect a president to speak for you, a fisherperson to fish for you, a secretary to scribe for you and a treasurer to do the math. 2. Each toothpick on the floor represents a fish. You need enough fish to feed your population. If there are 4 of you, you need 4 fish. Your fisherperson will go fishing by picking up the fish in the National Fishing Boat. The fisherperson will have 1 minute to go fishing and must keep his or herself seated in the chair, which has now turned into a boat. 3. If you catch more fish than you need, you may sell fish for $2 apiece. If you want to buy another boat, it will cost $20. 4. Fish left in the ocean will reproduce before the next round. Scientists have studied the fish and discovered that one new fish survives its hatching and growing stage for every two in the ocean. 5. At the end of each “fishing season” the fish will be counted from each nation and a discussion at the United Nations will occur. 6. On the board the following information will be posted after each round:

34* 66**

*number of fish caught **amount of money the country has collected, total ***number of fishing boats

Data Money Year # of fish made this Total Money # of boats year start 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Analysis: 1. Who won? Why?

2. What are the “commons”?

3. Who is responsible for the outcome?

4. Was the outcome preventable?

5. Why didn’t you prevent the outcome?

6. What other resources could be used in this game?

7. How does human population growth affect this problem? 8. What would you do differently if we played again?

Conclusion: What lessons did you learn from this simulation?