You're stranded on a deserted island...

Now that we had explored some of the ways that existing cultures meet human needs, it was time for the students to create their own culture.

I gave the students the following scenario:
You have been ship-wrecked on a deserted tropical island. You were caught in a storm and blown off your charted course by hundreds of miles. You are the only survivors, and nearly all the remnants of the ship washed out to sea. You have enough fresh water to last 6-7 days and enough canned food for 4-5 days. You will need to create shelters, and look for sources of food and fresh water. You have a few knives and 1 flashlight.

Some students were given assigned characters, including a pregnant woman with a very protective husband who is also a skilled carpenter, a professor who believes strongly in consensus decision-making, an ex-Navy seal, and a feminist college student.

I then provided them with specific tasks and challenges that they had to work through as a group:
Challenge 1: Figure out how to organize yourselves to build shelters and find food.
Solution 1: After much arguing, the students decided to choose a leader to assign tasks.

Challenge 2: The professor panicked in the night and ate all the remaining food supplies. Decide if and how you will punish him.
Solution 2: The group came to the decision to kill the professor very quickly, but spent a long time deciding the method and how to make his death profitable to the group. Ultimately, they chose to cut off his hands and genitals and send him into the jungle to serve as bait for wild animals.

Challenge 3: The married couple have taken all potential weapons and are standing guard over the only source of fresh water on the island. They will only give the rest of the group water if they bring gifts of food.
Solution 3: Bring gifts of food to start out because the group needs water to live, but plot a rebellion and take over the water supply by force at the first opportunity.

Challenge 4: Now that you have successfully overthrown the water dictators and they are tied up, what will you do with them? Consider the precedent you set by killing the professor, the fact that you will have to provide food and water to the prisoners if you decide to keep them alive, and that the prisoners won't be able to do any work to support the group without risking their escape.
Solution 4: The students were very hesitant to kill a pregnant woman, and also to lose the valuable carpentry skills of her husband. However, they realized that they would have to work to provide food and water to them and get nothing in return as long as the couple were held prisoner. They decided to negotiate with the couple and let them go.

Challenge 5: One member of the group becomes very ill with a rash and fever and dies. How do you deal with her death, both in terms of her potentially contagious body and possessions, and to give her a respectful farewell?
Solution 5: Burn down her hut, with her body still inside it. The students felt this would address both issues because no one would have to touch her body or belongings, and the fire would be an appropriate time to say goodbye.

At first the students were hesitant to get into character and take their predicament seriously, but by the time we had to stop they were arguing heatedly and disappointed I didn't have more challenges for them.

We finished with a discussion of what had happened and related some of the challenges and their solutions to debates going on in the US right now.

Coming soon! Student reflections on this activity and thoughts about how the problems they faced in their mini culture mirror US society.