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SPAIN’S MODULE 3: Why do teams exist in Nature? www.lessonsfromnature.org PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES SPAIN’S MODULE 3: Why do teams exist in Nature? Lessons from Nature principles: • Diversity gives strength • Nature is adaptive • Nature provides multiple benefits • General objectives: • Questioning the current paradigm of socio-economic competition • Considering behaviors as collaboration to face and solve real problems • Finding out about the benefits of having a pool of diverse of people, resources, etc. • Realisation about the power of nature as source of inspiration Why teams? • • • • KEY COMPETENCES Physical skills Teamwork Analytical capacities Oral communication EXPECTED OUTCOMES • Interest in sport practice • Understanding and recognizing individualistic and cooperative behaviors Teacher may carry out a basic activity based on the practice of any popular team sport (e.g., basketball, football, indoor football, handball, hockey, etc.), using the following modalities: First, students can play following the normal practice of the sport, passing the ball, cooperating and attempting to play as a team to win the game. Second, students of each team must play alone ignoring the rest of teammates (i.e, no passing the ball), dribbling opponents, trying to score and win the game. After that, students may discuss about the results of these two modalities. They can find actual sport performances to support their ideas. Videos showing teamwork in sports: Basketball: http://bit.ly/ICHTH Football: http://goo.gl/0Kwqh Living together: why teams? • • • • KEY COMPETENCES Reflection Creativity Knowledge on natural sciences Teamwork EXPECTED OUTCOMES • Realization of the multiple benefits of collaborating • Considering nature as source of worthwhile source of information. • Acknowledge diversity as source of power and efficiency This activity can start by proposing students some challenging dilemmas in which they must decide if cooperating or not: • Candies: put in a box one candy (cakes, toys, etc.) per student and offer them to the students. They must decide the way to distribute the candies. • Assembling a puzzle: give students 4 o 5 non-assembled puzzle games. They must assemble to gain some prize (good marks, spare time, candies, etc.). • Making a report: students will be requested to write a report on some topic. Teacher can give a number of points to assign among students (e.g. 3 students, 10 points per student, would result in 30 points to assign). They should reach an agreement. Are there teams in nature? We can follow this section with a brief set of questions: • • • How do you define the concept of team? Why do teams exist? It is exist in nature? At this point, students will list the types of inter- and intraspecific relationship that one can find in nature (i.e., predation, parasitism, symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, altruism). They could have access to books or other information sources if necessary (some links to youtube.com videos are provided as Supplementary resources). Finally, groups of students may present a comparative between the pros and cons of each type of relationship to discuss. The following questions me help in the debate: • Why there are negative (predation, parasitism) and positive (symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, altruism) relationships in nature? • What types of relationships are frequently observed between organisms belonging to the same species? • Do all the species have the same features? Are they diverse? In positive case, in what sense? • Why would different species need to cooperate? • What are the benefits for each species? Please, use examples. Supplementary Resources: Videos showing animal cooperation. • Problem solving by cooperating: http://youtu.be/xOrgOW9LnT4 • Cooperation and fairness: http://youtu.be/aAFQ5kUHPkY • Dr Lee Dugating explains altruism in natural and human systems: http://youtu.be/7m3yqCf4jGM • Altruism in living beings: http://youtu.be/n4tiEnJ5yCs Individual and collective thinking in the real world • • • • KEY COMPETENCES Critical thinking Analytical capacities Oral communication Teamwork EXPECTED OUTCOMES • Realization about the power of collaboration to improve the performance of real world activities • Assessing the consequences of individual acts • Looking for help and collaboration to face and solve problems • Recognizing the value of diversity as criteria to make decisions and configure systems First, teacher will challenge students to design a world that works based only on individual decisions. They can choose the scale (global, country, region, local, home, etc.) and the field (livestock exploitation, sports, school, pollution, business, governments, science, etc.). Students should work individually. Second, students will work in groups to identify situations in real world (using the same scale and field than in previous exercise) where cooperation and collective thinking can improve the individual performance in different fields. Students may develop this activity using role-play, simulating and describing the pros and cons of the individual and collective performances in each case to reach a conclusion. Later, students may discuss within each group about the outcomes of individual and collective ways to organize activities and societies. Finally, teacher may propose a debate where students will comment the conclusions about their experiences working individually and grouped, together with the conclusions obtained in each group. The following questions can help to focus the debate: • Is cooperation always necessary? When it would be required? When it would be better? • What do provide cooperation for individuals? • Do cooperation increase diversity? Why does diversity matter? Does diversity improve the performance of activities? With a little help from my friends • • • • • KEY COMPETENCES Creativity Entrepreneurship Autonomy Math operations Teamwork EXPECTED OUTCOMES • Considering cooperation as a valuable and efficient option to face complex and multilateral situations • Recognizing the multiple benefits of collaboration • Finding out of the consequences of individual decisions Students will solve a trade-off problem using cooperation, if appropriate. In general, students will be freedom to act as she/he consider (i.e., arrange groups, negotiate understandings, increasing exploitation, interchanges about their rights or act individually) following the rules of each game. Each game should have a final prize, which could be a better mark, more free time, a little gift or any other thing that teacher consider appropriate. If there would be more than one winner, prize should be divided (in the case of cooperation). In some cases, it is possible that the whole classroom wins. Possible activities: • Gymkhana: teacher can organize a gymkhana where all students are challenge to win the game. • Market: each student has a certain amount of raw material (e.g., copper, oil, etc.) and certain technologies (e.g., car industries, renewable energy). Teacher may distribute among students random amounts of materials and technology with the same economical value. The can trade with materials and technology to gain money. • Fisheries. Teacher can distribute fishery allowances into the students. Initially, each allowance includes a total amount of fish and a maximum extraction right (fixed), both measured in tons per year. When someone extracts its maximum extraction allowance she/he and her/his neighbors will have less production the next year. Teacher may arrange the rules, considering fish population growth (e.g., each year fish population grows the amount resulting from calculating the 5% of the mean own plus neighbor populations, until reach one maximum) and the production decay in case of overexploitation (e.g., if someone extract the maximum, next year this individual and its closer neighbors will have a 10% less of the maximum resources). The winner will be who have more money. • Pollution: students may organize a CO2 market where they can trade with emissions. They have maximum allowances per year. In case of crossing the maximum threshold they must pay a tax per ton. They can win money by producing goods and services but producing CO2 emissions that affect as own region as well the neighbors reducing all next year benefits. Teacher may facilitate tools for investment in new technologies, negotiate understandings and reaching multilateral solutions. • Strategy game: students can play to any popular strategy game (Risk/Monopoly, whatever). The stuff bank (to share) Students are challenged to create a bank to share useful stuff with a community. Students will choose the items (videogames, books, clothes, etc.) to share and the rules (rental periods, membership requirements, etc.). Once the bank is working and optimized, it can be offered to other persons outside the school to spread their results among the community,