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Email: phopkins@sas.edu.sg
What will you find on these pages?
This calendar contains information about homework, assignments that are due, and class resources (videos, slideshows, and related readings and podcasts). It also has information about what we'll be doing each day. Click here to see the syllabus.
UNIT ONE (GAME THEORY): In what contexts do we behave rationally?
UNIT ONE (GAME THEORY): In what contexts do we behave rationally?
ENRICHMENT PROJECT
Each quarter there will be an enrichment project that students may choose to do optionally. It is not required work. Click here to see the explanation and timeline for the Unit One Enrichment Project.
August 13: An Introduction to Game Theory and Vicarious Thinking
Activity #1: Read this.
Activity #2
Activity #3: The Ugli Orange Game
August 15: The Prisoner's Dilemma (What is it?)
Focus Question (What is the prisoner's dilemma?): After clicking this link, sign up for EDpuzzle using your Google account and watch the linked video. You must answer the questions in the video. You may take notes too but that is not required.
If you finish the video before other students, read pages 12-13 of this article on the prisoner's dilemma.
Then read this article on how the prisoner's dilemma relates to the environment and this one on how international trade can be a strategic game like the prisoner's dilemma.
Focus Question (How could I game the prisoner's dilemma?): Create your own card game in which the players are forced to encounter a prisoner's dilemma in some form.
Explain how to play your game here. Then copy the link to your document here.
August 20: The Prisoner's Dilemma (Evidence of learning)
Play your card games: Make any modifications necessary to your explanation from last class.
Make a video in which you play the game, demonstrating how the prisoner's dilemma is represented in it. In an audio voiceover on the video, do all of the following:
Identify the name of the game.
Explain the rules.
Explain how it is related to a prisoner’s dilemma.
Reflect on whether your idea worked. Is your game a prisoner’s dilemma or do players encounter one during the game? YOU MUST REFERENCE THE EVENTS FROM THE VIDEO.
Copy a link of the video in the appropriate place in your original document (from last class).
August 23: The Prisoner's Dilemma (Formative Guided Inquiry)
Research: Do some research so that you can answer the following questions.
Focus Question: What is one real life example of a prisoner's dilemma? How does it represent a prisoner's dilemma?
Focus Question: What is one example of a prisoner's dilemma from literature or film? How does it represent a prisoner's dilemma?
Essential Question (Do we behave rationally?): Explain how your two examples help us to answer the essential question.
Discussion: Participate in a discussion (posted in Schoology). You should make three posts. Click here to see the rubric for this assignment.
First post: Answer the questions above (one paragraph for each bullet point). Use quotes from credible sources to support your idea regarding the real life example and at least one quote from the work of literature or the film to support that argument. Post a link to your prisoners dilemma card game video at the end of this post.
Second post and third posts: Reply to two other students' posts, agreeing with one and disagreeing with the other.
August 27: The Chicken Game (What is the chicken game and how could I game it?)
Focus Question: (What is it?): I will explain the chicken game on the board. For those of you who want a more mathematical approach, watch this video.
Focus Question (How could I game it?): Create your own card game in which the players are forced to encounter a game of chicken in some form.
Demonstrate Understanding
Explain how to play your game on your original game document. You linked it here.
Play your card games: Make any modifications necessary.
Make a video in which you play the game, demonstrating how the chicken game is represented in it. In an audio voiceover on the video, do all of the following:
Identify the name of the game.
Explain the rules.
Explain how it is related to the chicken game.
Reflect on whether your idea worked. Is your game a chicken game or do players encounter one during the game? YOU MUST REFERENCE THE EVENTS FROM THE VIDEO.
Copy a link of the video in the appropriate place in your original game document.
August 29: The Chicken Game (Formative Guided Inquiry)
Research: Do some research so that you can answer the following questions.
Focus Question: What is one real life example of a chicken game? How does it represent a chicken game?
Focus Question: What is one example of a chicken game from literature or film? How does it represent a chicken game?
Essential Question (Do we behave rationally?): Explain how your two examples help us to answer the essential question.
Discussion: Participate in a discussion (posted in Schoology). You should make three posts. Click here to see the rubric for this assignment.
First post: Answer the questions above (one paragraph for each bullet point). Use quotes from credible sources to support your idea regarding the real life example and at least one quote from the work of literature or the film to support that argument. Post a link to your chicken game card game video at the end of this post.
Second post and third posts: Reply to two other students' posts, agreeing with one and disagreeing with the other.
Watch this video to learn about the stag hunt.
First post: Answer the questions above (one paragraph for each bullet point). Use quotes from credible sources to support your idea regarding the real life example and at least one quote from the work of literature or the film to support that argument. Post a link to your chicken game card game video at the end of this post.
Second post and third posts: Reply to two other students' posts, agreeing with one and disagreeing with the other.
August 31: Stag Hunt (What is it and how could I game it?)
Focus Question: (What is it?): Watch this video to learn about the stag hunt.
Focus Question (How could I game it?): Create your own card game in which the players are forced to encounter a version of the stag hunt.
Demonstrate Understanding
Explain how to play your game on your original game document. You linked it here.
Play your card games: Make any modifications necessary.
Make a video in which you play the game, demonstrating how the stag hunt is represented in it. In an audio voiceover on the video, do all of the following:
Identify the name of the game.
Explain the rules.
Explain how it is related to the stag hunt.
Reflect on whether your idea worked. Is your game a stag hunt or do players encounter one during the game? YOU MUST REFERENCE THE EVENTS FROM THE VIDEO.
Copy a link of the video in the appropriate place in your original game document.
September 4: Stag Hunt (Formative Guided Inquiry)
Research: Do some research so that you can answer the following questions.
Focus Question: What is one real life example of the stag hunt? How does it represent the stag hunt?
Focus Question: What is one example of the stag hunt from literature or film? How does it represent the stag hunt?
Essential Question (Do we behave rationally?): Explain how your two examples help us to answer the essential question.
Discussion: Participate in a discussion (posted in Schoology). You should make three posts. Click here to see the rubric for this assignment.
First post: Answer the questions above (one paragraph for each bullet point). Use quotes from credible sources to support your idea regarding the real life example and at least one quote from the work of literature or the film to support that argument. Post a link to your stag hunt card game video at the end of this post.
Second post and third posts: Reply to two other students' posts, agreeing with one and disagreeing with the other.
September 6: Matching Pennies (What is it and how could I game it?)
Focus Question: (What is it?): Watch this video to learn about a new game, Matching Pennies.
Watch this one if you want to learn how to use mixed strategy algorithms to solve these types of games.
Focus Question (How could I game it?): Create your own card game in which the players are forced to encounter a version of matching pennies.
Demonstrate Understanding
Explain how to play your game on your original game document. You linked it here.
Play your card games: Make any modifications necessary.
Make a video in which you play the game, demonstrating how matching pennies is represented in it. In an audio voiceover on the video, do all of the following:
Identify the name of the game.
Explain the rules.
Explain how it is related to matching pennies.
Reflect on whether your idea worked. Is your game a matching pennies or do players encounter one during the game? YOU MUST REFERENCE THE EVENTS FROM THE VIDEO.
Copy a link of the video in the appropriate place in your original game document.
September 11: Matching Pennies (Formative Guided Inquiry)
Research: Do some research so that you can answer the following questions.
Focus Question: What is one real life example of matching pennies? How does it represent matching pennies?
Focus Question: What is one example of the matching pennies from literature or film? How does it represent matching pennies?
Essential Question (Do we behave rationally?): Explain how your two examples help us to answer the essential question.
Discussion: Participate in a discussion (posted in Schoology). You should make three posts. Click here to see the rubric for this assignment.
First post: Answer the questions above (one paragraph for each bullet point). Use quotes from credible sources to support your idea regarding the real life example and at least one quote from the work of literature or the film to support that argument. Post a link to your matching pennies card game video at the end of this post.
Second post and third posts: Reply to two other students' posts, agreeing with one and disagreeing with the other.
September 13: Battle of the Sexes (What is it and how could I game it?)
Focus Question: (What is it?): Watch this video to learn about a new game, Battle of the Sexes.
Focus Question (How could I game it?): Create your own card game in which the players are forced to encounter a version of battle of the sexes.
Demonstrate Understanding
Explain how to play your game on your original game document. You linked it here.
Play your card games: Make any modifications necessary.
Make a video in which you play the game, demonstrating how battle of the sexes is represented in it. In an audio voiceover on the video, do all of the following:
Identify the name of the game.
Explain the rules.
Explain how it is related to battle of the sexes.
Reflect on whether your idea worked. Is your game an example of battle of the sexes or do players encounter a similar problem during the game? YOU MUST REFERENCE THE EVENTS FROM THE VIDEO.
Copy a link of the video in the appropriate place in your original game document.
September 17: Battle of the Sexes (Formative Guided Inquiry)
Research: Do some research so that you can answer the following questions.
Focus Question: What is one real life example of battle of the sexes? How does it represent battle of the sexes?
Focus Question: What is one example of the battle of the sexes from literature or film? How does it represent battle of the sexes?
Essential Question (Do we behave rationally?): Explain how your two examples help us to answer the essential question.
Discussion: Participate in a discussion (posted in Schoology). You should make three posts. Click here to see the rubric for this assignment.
First post: Answer the questions above (one paragraph for each bullet point). Use quotes from credible sources to support your idea regarding the real life example and at least one quote from the work of literature or the film to support that argument. Post a link to your battle of the sexes card game video at the end of this post.
Second post and third posts: Reply to two other students' posts, agreeing with one and disagreeing with the other.
Unit One Summative Assessment
Unit One Summative Assessment
Part 1
September 19: Prepare for the Unit One Summative Assessment
September 21: Summative Guided Inquiry (Part 1)
September 25: Summative Guided Inquiry (Part 2)
Part 2
September 27: Summative game. I will use this rubric to assess your game.
Write your game's story.
Write the rules of your game and plan the materials you need.
October 1: Bring materials to class and make your game.
October 3: Play games, make any changes necessary, and make your game video.
UNIT TWO (BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS): In what contexts do we behave irrationally?
UNIT TWO (BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS): In what contexts do we behave irrationally?
THIS VIDEO IS A GOOD INTRODUCTION TO THE KINDS OF IDEAS YOU WILL STUDY THIS UNIT.
And here's another related to policing and "implicit bias." It relates to the first concept we will discuss, thinking automatically.
Finallly, watch this video about procrastination to get a sense of one of life's most annoying cognitive traps, present bias.
October 5: How does thinking automatically ("thinking fast") cause irrational behavior?
Required: Watch the Ted Talk by Ariely in #1. Read the article and listen to the embedded Ted Talk in #2. Read the linked section of the 2015 World Development Report in #3. Take note of any ideas/quotes from these texts that help you to form a thesis about the question above.
Daniel Ariely on Irrational Behavior
Optional: Listen to the interview with Daniel Kahneman in #1 and the interview with Jim Yong Kim in #2. Take note of any ideas/quotes from these texts that help you to form a thesis about the question above.
October 16 (Formative Guided Inquiry): How does thinking socially cause irrational behavior?
Class discussion: Rubric
October 18 (Formative Guided Inquiry): How does thinking with mental models explain irrational behavior?
Class discussion
The Book Drop Experiment (Formative Shared Inquiry): Rubric
The Book Drop Experiment (Formative Shared Inquiry): Rubric
October 22: The book drop experiment (Dr. Devens)
Dr. Devens will talk about helping behavior. Read this related article.
Dr. Devens will talk about the Barry's Schwarz's Paradox of Choice in his lesson. Watch the TedTalk below to learn more if this idea is interesting to you.
THE ASSIGNMENT
Dr. Devens will be explaining the book drop experiment to you. You will do it yourself. Click here for an explanation of what you have to do.
Use this document to help you start your experiment and write your report.
October 25: Experiment
October 29: Experiment/write report (Click here to see a student model of this type of work.)
October 31: Write report
November 2: Presentations: Click here to see the presentation rubric. Written report due to turnitin.com. Watch the embedded video below to see an exemplary presentation.
Cognitive Trap #1 (Summative Shared Inquiry): Rubric
Cognitive Trap #1 (Summative Shared Inquiry): Rubric
November 7: How do cognitive biases cause irrational behavior?
Click this link and begin to read about the various cognitive biases listed on the page.
Experiment
Choose one of the cognitive biases that interests you.
Brainstorm ways in your life and in those of people you know that this cognitive bias causes bad decisions or irrational behavior.
Find a study/experiment that has been done to test whether this cognitive trap is real, whether it causes irrational behavior. YOUR TASK IS TO REPLICATE THE STUDY/EXPERIMENT.
November 9: Write report
November 13: Write report
November 15: Presentations: Click here to see the presentation rubric. Written report due to turnitin.com. Watch this video to see an exemplary presentation for this project.
Cognitive Trap #2 (Summative Shared Inquiry): Rubric
Cognitive Trap #2 (Summative Shared Inquiry): Rubric
November 19: How do cognitive biases cause irrational behavior?
Click this link to revisit the various cognitive biases you read about at the start of the last project.
Experiment
Choose a new cognitive bias that interests you.
Brainstorm ways in your life and in those of people you know that this cognitive bias causes bad decisions or irrational behavior.
Using what you learned from the book drop experiment, DESIGN AN EXPERIMENT OF YOUR OWN to test whether this cognitive trap is the cause of the irrational decision making.
November 21: Write report
November 27: Write report
November 29: Presentations: Click here to see the presentation rubric. Written report due to turnitin.com.
FINAL PROJECT (Shared Inquiry)
FINAL PROJECT (Shared Inquiry)
Enrichment Project: The Unit 2 Enrichment Project is to develop an experiment to test the idea you develop in your final project. I will explain in more detail in class.
December 3
Listen to this podcast about SOCIAL NUDGES (23 minutes). As you have learned, we do not always behave rationally. Nobel Prize winning economist Richard Thaler suggests that irrational behavior can be partially addressed through employing social nudges like the ones discussed in the podcast.
Work on final project (Intention-action divide, choice-architecture, and nudges). You may be able to find some ideas from the webpage of the Behavioural Insights Team.
December 5: Work on final project (Intention-action divide, choice-architecture, and nudges).
December 7: Work on final project.
December 11: Rough draft (Sections 1 and 2 only) finished and shared in the drop by the beginning of the period.
Peer edit and revision
Work on final project.
December 13: Work on final project. Final projects and presentations due by the end of the exam period.
December 19: Final projects and presentations due by the end of the exam period (9:30 AM).
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