Choose Your Own Adventure Game

February 26, 2009 6:12 AM

I want to do an exercise with my high school students to help them understand the benefits of having going to college, like a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' type of game, where they go through a series of life events and the options they have available to them are based on the level of education (hs dropout, hs graduate, associates, bachelors, masters, PhD, professional) that I've assigned to them. Does something like this already exist or do you have any suggestions for types of questions/scenarios I can ask them?

I'm working with high school juniors and seniors, if it matters.

posted by chara to education (18 comments total)

I don't know about anything like this that exists, but here are some ideas...

Find as much information as you can about standard of living as related to educational attainment - stuff like "30% of hs dropouts have health insurance" (I made that up). Have students roll dice to determine whether they fall in the 30% or 70%. Then assign fates based on whether they have insurance or not. You could also have different groups roll for their monthly income based on education to determine their monthly pot of money, and have possible outcomes of other rolls (like health insurance) come out of the monthly income pot so that they can determine how much money is left at the end of the month.

I know that this isn't super-specific, but I think that the demographic information that you can find will determine what life events you choose for your activity.

FWIW, I'm a HS math/science teacher
posted by shrabster at 6:35 AM on February 26

For extra realism points, make sure if they get a PhD, they get job applications rejected because they're overqualified.
posted by Mike1024 at 6:44 AM on February 26 [6 favorites]

Somewhat simliar, I used to use a Poverty Game with my students. However that emphasizes the role of fate where it seems you want to emphasis making good choices.
posted by saucysault at 7:22 AM on February 26

Sounds like a pretty short book.

[1] If you choose to go to college, close this book and go do so. Otherwise turn to page 2.
[2] If you choose to apply for an entry level job with no educational background beyond a HS diploma, go to page 3.
[3] You end up in an entry level job shuffling papers for a major company. Go to page 4.
[4] You do mindlessly repetitive work every day with no hope of ever getting anywhere. If you want to look for a new job, turn to page 3. If you think you're qualified to apply for a promotion, go to page 5.
[5] You apply for a promotion but are denied in favor of hiring a recent college grad off the street who is already getting paid more than you. Go back to page 4.
posted by Ziggy Zaga at 7:37 AM on February 26

You could have them play a walk-around "Game of Life" type thing. But rather than letting dice decide, let them choose, and then their future choices are determined by their previous. Set up stations that represent different times/choices, and a couple of cards at each which say what their choice will lead to. I would start them early - let them chose whether to stay in highschool or to work, then let them chose whether to study for tests, complete assignments, etc, in high school - basically, what kind of grades they are aiming for. So if they say "I want to study and aim to be an B or A student," they get a card that says "You will be accepted at a four year university."

If you really want to model reality - you can start giving the ones who chose to work right away some kind of reward/money right away, but this amount is small, and the others who wait get something better later. Which is really what happens - those who choose to study have to suffer financially while those who work right away have money, but the money they get rarely improves while the others have much better incomes later.

But by the fact that you are even contemplating this activity - I assume your students are not well-to-do or middle class, because college is so often just expected from them. I don't know whether you are from a working-class/uneducated background yourself, so please accept my apologies if what I am saying is obvious to you, but I am from a poor/working class family, and the worst thing the guidance counsellors ever told my family and I was that me must go to college just when middle class kids do, right after high school. That was the day my mother decided that I probably would never go to college, because financially it was a non-starter. I had no tuition money when I graduated high school, though I had A grades. If the rest of my teachers had acted like I had to start college right away, I would have given up completely and never gone. But the game of real life means that, unlike high school, there are no age limits for university. Until you have children and other responsibilities, you always have the same chance as an 18 year old kid. And being the 21-year old, or 25-year old, just might give you that extra drive to be better than all the 18 year olds.

I took two years off and made some money, and then got in everywhere I applied and did much better than I would have if I had gone right away (I was mentally rested, and really excited about learning). Of course, these were all Canadian state universities, so I could actually afford to pay my tuition from my savings; this is less and less realistic for American students. But working class people just have a very different orientation to college and the money for college than middle class people.

So in your stations, you should let the students take a job after high school, and start getting money (more than those who dropped out, less than those who went to college), but then they can trade that in at any time before they start to have kids to go to college just like those who did right away - in fact, to be very realistic, you should give all the kids who went to college big debts they have to pay back from their later big pay checks ($30,000/year vs $15,000), but the ones who work and then turn in some of the money to pay for college should get a reduced debt load.

Definitely play with money, if your kids aren't rich. Poor kids always understand money. Or candy - that way, you can tell kids they have a choice as to whether to spend (eat) the money, or save it to pay for something, like college.
posted by jb at 7:39 AM on February 26 [3 favorites]

Oh, my husband just pointed out: one draw back for your kids if they choose the "work then college" road - fewer parties at college. Which could lead to the disasterous situation of really good grades in college, acceptance to graduate school, then a PhD.

Then your life is ruined.

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Actually - he pointed out that those who choose to work should also have to roll dice to see if they get distracted by something (or someone - getting married, having kids, etc) and don't get a chance to go to college. So to add to the realism, there should be some risk to the "work then college" road, but also rewards (less debt load).
posted by jb at 7:43 AM on February 26

No offense taken, jb. Your assumption is correct: I'm working with inner-city students.
posted by chara at 7:48 AM on February 26

Parker Brothers used to make a board game called Careers. I don't know if that's what you're looking for or if it's even available anymore. Board games of that era were a carry over from pre-TV days when families and friends gathered in the evening to spend some time together. The focus was fellowship not education. But the game might be useful.
posted by birdwatcher at 8:02 AM on February 26

This is a very cool idea.

I'm thinking you could do it like the old "Game of Life". A board with two career paths; go to college, and don't. A few thoughts...

- Have cards to draw at various times, to deal with different life situations. Like, "You suffered a major injury. 1) You DON'T have adequete insurance. Spend $3000 on hospital bills, and miss two weeks of work. 2) You DO have adequete insurance. Spend $100 on insurance co-pay, spend two weeks of paid sick leave." Other situations could deal with; networking potential with college friends, critical thinking skills developed in college.
- I'm sure the data is out there that reflects median salaries for no college, some college, bachellor's, master's, PhD. Maybe tie the numbers into long-term issues like when a person can comfortably retire (i.e. have saved $X by age 65).
- I recall watching something on TV about how high schoolers think about their future. There seemed to be a good percentage that had very low-probability notions of career paths; like being a pop-singer or NBA/NFL/MLB star, etc. In a game situation, this could be third potential career path - which, if they choose it, have to roll ten dice, and have them all come up 6, THEN they can become pop star or sports star. Otherwise, not.

And to reiterate... This is a very cool idea. Let us know how it turns out.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 8:32 AM on February 26

A slightly more involved approach would be more RPG-like: give them a pool of base points and let them assign them to their "character's" various traits/skills/etc (which in this game is just a proxy/avatar of oneself.) Adjust progression curves so that less immediately gratifying provide significant advantages after a crossover point (i.e. completion of a degree, reaching a certain age, etc.) or at least provide a more dependable advantage (aim for NBA or MBA? MTV or MFA?) As players move around the game board or through the scenarios they gain additional points to assign depending on how their choices are rewarded.

You could even have different available game boards to show how different contexts reward different skills.

This may be way too geeky, or too much up front design work, but on the other hand I would think that HS juniors and seniors would probably dismiss anything that seems too simplistic as childish, condescending and programmatic.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:50 AM on February 26

Make sure that your game doesn't unintentionally present no hope whatsoever to those whose skills are practical rather than academic. I don't know what vocational education options are open to kids where you live, but make sure you don't ignore their value just because that's not the path you went down yourself.
posted by emilyw at 9:53 AM on February 26 [3 favorites]

Based on what snuffleupagus said above, I think that the NBA thing could make for an interesting set of choices. You could have the student choose to go to college on a scholarship for a sport, then have them make choices about what they do while in school. The outcomes could vary based on how hard they work at classes and at the sport.

I think this sounds like a very interesting project!
posted by jefeweiss at 9:54 AM on February 26

Alter Ego
posted by jcruelty at 10:09 AM on February 26 [1 favorite]

Also, try to work in a way to let your students know that not all college degrees are created equal, especially in terms of post-undergrad employment outcomes for liberal arts vs. professional/science/engineering majors.
posted by thisjax at 10:32 AM on February 26

I'm with emilyw. The notion that every kid belongs in college is stupid (not saying that's your position, chara). Nothing is for everybody.

What I'd advocate is making a distinction between getting and education and getting a degree. Those two concepts are rarely found together.
posted by trinity8-director at 10:44 AM on February 26

an education, of course. There's my proof!
posted by trinity8-director at 10:45 AM on February 26

A couple years ago I worked with Junior Achievement to make a game that was basically this. You choose how long you want to go to school (from drop-out to PHD) then you live your life, sort of Sims style, based on those decisions, including the types of jobs/level of income you get from your education.

All of the data used in the game to determine jobs and income was based on real world data, not only of education vs job, but of the commonality of the job as well (so just because you've got your bachelor's doesn't mean you get to be a CEO since that's not a common job). At any time you could go back for more schooling, and though players incur debt for learning after high school, they get to see what opportunities open for them.

Since it's Junior Achievement there is also an emphasis on economic responsibility so that you could finish the game successfully with a HS diploma if you lived very meagerly and were lucky to not get into a car accident without insurance. And we put lots of shiny stuff to buy in there to try to drive you into debt.

I think it was part of their "Economics for Success" program.
posted by Ookseer at 11:34 AM on February 26

especially in terms of post-undergrad employment outcomes for liberal arts vs. professional/science/engineering majors.
posted by thisjax 8 hours ago [+]

A recent study in Ontario found that those with liberal arts degrees had better employment prospects than those with engineering degrees.

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Also, emilyw is right: don't leave out the world of skilled practical education. Many skilled trades are both more personally rewarding as well as more monetarily rewarding than generic BA-careers - electricians make far more money than adminstrative assistants, and can work for themselves. Does your school have any information on apprenticeship programs, or programs like cooking schools? You could add that to the choices.
posted by jb at 7:10 PM on February 26