A Class Simulation to Understand the Economic System

In order to better understand the economic system, the class was asked to participate in a simulation. The students were given limited Lime, resources, and instructions, and informed that failure to meet the exact regulations of the assignment would mean a metaphorical, yet still dramatic “death” for the students. The analogy was this: You are trapped on a desert island, with nothing. You must create, using only the natural resources from the island, three symbols for survival. The first symbol is a fish.

The fish is to be 4 V2” by 5”, and the tail 2 W‘, There should be an eye, the size of a quarter. The fish should symbolize food and water. The second symbol, meant to represent shelter, would be a hut. The but should be constructed as an 8” by 4″ rectangle, folded down the middle of the 8” side. At the bottom, there will be a door, placed in the exact middle, which measures 1″ vertically by ‘/2” horizontally. The door should be cut on the right and top, leaving the left side intact so that the door can be folded open.

The third symbol is a poncho, the base for the poncho should be a 6” by 2” rectangle, folded on the longest side as with the hut. In the exact center should be a 1” by 1/2” rectangle to represent a neck hole. The long sides should match up, showing the two rectangles inside each other facing the same direction. This symbolized clothing. Failure to produce items matching these exact dimensions would result in failure. But this was not the only challenge, In addition to correctly cutting out the dimensions of the items, they must be colored exactly as specified.

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Each symbol was assigned a number, and that number corresponded to a color. The eye of the fish will be 1, representing green. The body of the fish, as well as the entirety of the hut is assigned the number. This signified a reddish color.

Lastly, the poncho is labeled 3, corresponding to the color blue, Failure to match the colors correctly, or to completely color in the shape, would result in failure. The third major dilemma is the resources themselves. For the twenty “stranded” students, there was only one small table from which to gather supplies. On the table were the following “natural resources”: thirty blank sheets of white paper, three rulers, three pairs of scissors, three red crayons, three green crayons, three blue crayons, six pencils, and three cutouts of fish, meant for tracing the fish’s body. The students were given twenty minutes to complete the tasks at hand. Immediately, the students ran into problems. The most obvious stumbling block was the lack of supplies With twenty students all set on tracing the outline of their fish, and only three outlines available, people began to exhibit two reactions. One group of people (for the sake of the paper, Group started claiming materials, grabbing pencils, paper, and scissors, in hopes of somehow receiving the cutout next because they had the supplies that everyone needed. Another group  skipped ahead, using the spare pencils and rulers to measure out the dimensions of the hut or poncho.

Even after both of these groups were formed, there was left a considerable amount of students who lacked suppliest These students tried to ask for help, finally getting one utensil only to realize that they needed another for it to be effective, Many people sat with rulers and paper, waiting for a pencil to become available with which to outline. Eventually, it was time for the coloring, The students from group A had monopolized the crayons, taking one of each color and setting them on their desk as if to claim them. After a short time, a system of bartering came into play, resulting in more of an organized chaos, There were a few students, however, who were oblivious to the system and opted to simply take the supplies they needed the moment they became available. In spite of the time constraints, and the obvious lack of supplies, there was a surprising level of ease to obtaining the necessary materials, and everyone completed all three tasks.

In the end, not a single student “survived“ the experiment, mostly due to faulty measurements or lack of correct coloring. This brings to mind a few very important questions: Was it possible to pass the test, or were all participants doomed to fail? Were there any improvements or short-cuts that could have been taken to speed up the process or ensure accuracy? And what about the nature of the experiment; was it fair or were the students judged too harshly on minor flaws? The class was assured that it was possible to correctly replicate all three symbols, and that the judgment was completely fair. As for the second question, well, that is why this paper exists In order to explore and understand this activity, each student was asked to write a response in which they provide a detailed plan with complete instructions on how they would have completed this experiment had they been put in charge.

After careful consideration and many flawed systems, this is what 1 propose: First, based on volunteering or random selection, I would choose people to be assigned to each of the necessary tasksi Three people would be assigned to tracing the fish onto a piece of paper, one person to measure and outline the poncho, one to measure and outline the hut, and another to measure and outline the neck holes and doors of the finished ponchos and huts. Three people would then be assigned to cut out the pieces, two sheets of paper at a time in order to double the production rate while maintaining accuracy. Six people would be designated for coloring, two assigned to each specific colon (There will be one crayon left over of each color, in case it runs out or is broken.)

The crayons should be stripped of the wrappers and turned on their side to allow a single stroke to cover more surface area, this should speed up the coloring process immensely. Two people would be needed to fold, one for the huts, another for the ponchos. This measures out to an even twenty people, and uses all of the natural resources simultaneously. This process would be fast and would therefore leave time for production of extra pieces in case some turned out to be imperfect. In this manner, 1 think that it would be extremely easy and efficient to mass produce the goods needed with the resources given.