Unit 2

Disaster Preparedness - A survival game

Disaster Preparedness – A Survival Game

You are a group of geologists working in an office in a remote area of the country. Your region has been hit by a strong tropical cyclone. It has been raining heavily for the past six hours. All cell phone towers in the area have been damaged by the heavy wind.

The local radio has just announced that a dam in the nearby area has burst and your area is going to be completely flooded in about 20 minutes. That means you have to evacuate your office immediately. In these extreme weather conditions, it is going to take around three days to reach the nearest town on foot. The temperature is 25 degrees Celsius. Fortunately, you are all very familiar with the region.

You have been given 16 items available in your office. You must choose the five most useful items (no more than 5) for your survival during the next 72 hours. List the items in the order of importance (starting from the most important thing), and be prepared to explain your reasons for your choice.

You have to reach a consensus (i.e. agreement) as a group. Your group will be successful if:

• it selects items in a logical order of importance and gives convincing reasons for the selection

• the first two items in the list should be the same as those in the teacher’s list, which is based on expert opinion (the teacher’s list will be shown at the end).

Reflection on Group Work in the Disaster Game

• How did the group work go?

• Are you happy with the outcome of your work as a group?

• What do you think you, as a group, could have done better?

• Using the ‘survival game’ experience, what can you do to improve as a group?

Now, let us try out the Gibbs' Reflective Cycle model on your survival game experience!

Reflection: The Gibbs' Reflective Cycle

One way of thinking about reflection is using the Gibbs' reflective cycle. The cycle is split into a number of specific stages and each stage involves asking a number of questions

Read the description of the 6 stages of the Gibbs' Reflective Cycle below.

Stage 1: Description of the event

Describe in detail the event you are reflecting on. For example, you may include

• where you were

• who else was there

• why you were there

• what you were doing

• what other people were doing

• what the context was of the event

• what happened

• what your part was in this

• what parts other people played

• what the result was

Stage 2: Feelings and Thoughts

At this stage, try to recall and explore those things that were going on inside your head. You may include:

• how you were feeling when the event started

• what you were thinking about at the time

• how it made you feel

• how other people made you feel

• how you felt about the outcome of the event

• what you think about it now

Stage 3: Evaluation

Identify the successes or the issues in depth. Try to evaluate or make a judgement about what has happened. Consider what was good about the experience and what was bad about the experience or what did or didn’t go so well.

Stage 4: Analysis

Examine reasons for success or issues about the event. Break the event down into its component parts so you can analyze why they succeeded or not. You may need to ask more detailed questions about the answers to the Evaluation stage. You may include:

• what the strengths and weaknesses of your group and yourself are

• how the strengths contributed to successful steps

• how the weaknesses affected the group work

• what the reasons are for your group’s success or failure, in your opinion

Stage 5: Conclusion (Synthesis)

This differs from the Evaluation stage in that now you have explored the issue from different angles and have a lot of information upon which to base your judgement. It is here that you are likely to develop insight into your own and other people’s behaviour. During this stage you should ask yourself what you could have done differently.

Stage 6: Action Plan

During this stage imagine it IS the future and you have a similar event ahead of you. What will you do to prepare? What will you do differently or will you act the same way?

Writing Skills: Using Gibbs' Reflective Cycle

Using the Gibbs' Reflective Cycle, reflect on the process of working together to come up with the seven most useful items. You can also reflect on one of your PBL activities or assignments. Use the questions below as guides to each of the stages. (Note: you do not need to answer all of the questions under each heading.) Submit you reflection to your Google Folder for teacher feedback.

Note: Grammar points have been given for each stage to help you with tenses.

The purpose of your group work:

tips for reflection 1:

1. Description:

• What happened?

• When and where did it happen?

• How long did it take?

• How many people were involved?

• What was your part in this?

• What parts did the other people play?

• Did you achieve your aim?

Grammar: Use mostly past tense

2. Feelings:

• What were you thinking during the planning?

• How were you feeling when the event started?

• Did anything/anybody make you feel happy/enthusiastic/pressured/upset/angry?

• How did you feel about the outcome of the event?

• What do you think about it now?

Grammar tip: Use past tense to describe past feelings; Use present tense to describe how you feel now

3. Evaluation:

• What were the things that went well?

• What were the things that did not go well? (Or)

• List the good and bad things that happened during your group work.

Grammar tip: Use mostly past tense

4. Analysis:

• In your view, what are the reasons for your group’s success or failure?

• From your evaluation, what do you understand about your group and yourself?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of your group and yourself?

• How did the strengths contribute to successful steps?

• How did the weaknesses affect the group work?

5. Conclusion:

• Consider other alternatives. What else could you have done to be more successful?

• Could you have done anything differently?

• Do you feel you did not do something important?

• Do you feel you should not have done something?

Grammar tip:

I should / should not have + past participle form of verb

I could / could not have + past participle form of verb

Examples: I should have asked for help ___ I should not have wasted time on ___

I could have spent more time on ___ I could not have done it without ___

6. Action Plan:

• If such a situation arose again, what will you do to be more successful?

• What will you do differently next time?

• What kind of improvement do you and your group need to make?

• Is there any practice/training/help/reading/advice needed?

Grammar tip:

I / we should / could / would / will

I / we need to