Lesson Plan

Grades 6-8, 9-12

One for All

This lesson plan must be purchased as part of a lesson packet or as part of a full curriculum that is available in our store.

See Purchase Options

25 minutes

SUBJECTS: Science, Social Studies

TOPICS: Carrying Capacity, Resource Distribution, Sustainability: Sharing Common Resources

Resource Overview

In a simulation, students desiring to draw renewable resources from a common pool determine short-term consumption strategies that will preserve a long-term supply of the resource.

Students will be able to:
  • Identify a strategy that would produce a sustainable use of resources in a simulation game.
  • Draw parallels between the chips used in the game and renewable resources upon which people depend.
  • Analyze how the actions of participants in the resource simulation game are similar or different from the actions of people in real-world situations.
  • Discuss the impact of human population growth on sustainable resource management.
Students reaching for poker chips in Tragedy of the Commons simulation

Features of This Resource

  • Lesson plan is a tragedy of the commons simulation game
  • Easily scaled for more advanced, or less advanced, follow-up discussion
  • Great lesson plan for social economics

How Do I Get This Lesson Plan?

This lesson plan must be purchased as part of a lesson packet or as part of a full curriculum that is available in our store.

Other Resources You Might Like:

Students hold poker chips representing resources in global resource comparison lesson
Grades
Chips of Trade

Acting as countries in a simulation game, students discuss how resources are inequitably distributed throughout the world and how this... Read more »

Grades ,
Take a Stand

Students express their thoughts on issues related to population and the environment, then research a specific issue and write a... Read more »

Apple slices represent different areas of the Earth: water, inhospitable land, used arable land, and arable land for farming
Grades
Earth: The Apple of Our Eye (high school)

An apple is sliced into pieces to model the current amount of agricultural land on Earth. Then students read an... Read more »