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John Sloman
Improving Student Motivation
and Learning through Classroom
Experiments and Games
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Tell me and I will forget
Show me and I will remember
Involve me and I will understand
Step back and I will act
(Chinese proverb)
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Games, experiments
and role playing in PBL
Strengths
motivation, involvement, empathy, fun!
encourages active and deep learning
illustration and contextualisation
Potential weaknesses
over-simplification
not taken seriously
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Games, experiments
and role playing in PBL
Overcoming the drawbacks
clear guidelines
feedback and reflection
drawing on concepts in later classes
linked to seminar activities
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Game 1: A trading game
Students divided into buyers and sellers
Students given cards
Black for sellers of the item
Number on card gives cost of item in s
Want to sell above value of card
Red for buyers of the item
Number on card gives value of item in s
Want to buy below value of card
Trading takes place
Individual buyers and sellers agree prices
Mark their gain on their sheet
No deal gives no gain or loss
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Game 1: Reflections
(Link to paper) (Link to handout)
Students get considerable insight into the
working of pit markets
Equilibrium prices rapidly emerge
Can vary the cards to see the effects on
equilibrium
Easy to demonstrate producer and
consumer surplus
Can discuss information issues
Can introduce a tax of x on suppliers
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Game 2:
Expected value game
TV show: Deal or No Deal?
Channel 4, six days per week (45 mins)
US version playable online (link)
26 people each with a suitcase of money, the
amount not known to them
Sums of money vary from 1 to $1,000,000
One contestant us selected to play
who eliminates suitcases in batches, whose
contents are then revealed
After each batch, the contestant is offered a Deal by
the Banker, based on the values yet to be eliminated
The contestant chooses Deal or No Deal
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Game 2: Reflections
Virtually all students will be familiar with
the game
Easy to set up:
It can be played online
Or with envelopes and the sums of money on
the whiteboard
Illustrates decision-making under risk
Expected value; risk premia; probability; risk
attitudes and what affects them
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Game 3:
Production function game
Activity
Production runs (2) in a factory, involving
moving balls from one place to another
Extra workers are added one at a time
Equipment:
About 30 balls (e.g. tennis balls)
4 buckets (or baskets or cardboard boxes)
Students divided into two teams
Object to get as many balls from one end to the
other in 30 seconds
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Game 3: Reflections
(Link to paper) (Link to handout)
Easy to set up and fun to play
Can bring alive a potentially dry subject area
Flexible: can be played with 1, 2 or more teams
Can demonstrate
Diminishing returns
TP, AP and MP
Can derive TC, AC, MC, TR, AR, MR and Profit
Shifts and movements along product and cost
curves from technological change
Effects of changing fixed and variable costs
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Game 4:
Public goods game
Aim
Aim is to make as much money as possible,
irrespective of what others make
Activity
Each person (or pair) is given four cards of the
same value (e.g. four threes or four queens)
Each person plays two cards each round
Scoring
Black cards have no value
Red cards are worth 1 for everyone if played
and 4 just to the individual if not played.
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Game 4: Reflections
(Link to paper) (Link to handout)
Very easy to set up and fun to play
Can easily be played in a seminar
Flexible: can be played with up to 13 individuals
or pairs
Can demonstrate
Public goods and external benefits
Prisoners dilemma and Nash equilibrium
Collusion versus competition
Motivation and altruism
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Game 5:
Auctioning a pound coin
Activity
This is a simple auction of a pound coin
The only difference is that both the winner and
the next highest bidder have to pay
At the end
The money earned can be returned to students
(but dont tell them this at the start).
A discussion can then take place about the
issues raised
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Game 5: Reflections
(Link to paper) (Link to handout)
Simple and flexible
Simple equipment: a pile of pound coins and a
sheet for recording results
Can be played in a seminar group
Can demonstrate
Sunk costs and marginal costs
Risk attitudes
Collusive bidding
Concepts of equity
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Game 6: A Keynesian
Beauty Contest
A game about investor expectations
predicting share prices based on what you think
other people will do
Simple to play
No equipment required other than:
a calculator for the tutor
a whiteboard/flipchart for recording results
The game (each round)
Students have to select a number from 0 to 100
A prize is given in each round to the student
who selects a number closest to 2/3 of the mean
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Game 6: Reflections
Link1 Link 2
At the end
Students can be asked to explain their decisions
Can demonstrate:
Expectations formation
Iterative thinking / progression
Movement to Nash equilibrium
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Game 7: Tradable
Permits Game
Six teams
Each represents a polluting firm
Each team is given a worksheet and a marginal abatement
cost (MAC) curve
Each team is given an emissions allocation
The same for all firms (1480 units)
Round 1
Establishes cost of abatement with no trading
Round 2
Teams can now trade allocations
Price is adjusted by tutor until demand equals supply
Establishes the cost with trading at market clearing price
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Game 7: Reflections
(Link to handouts and worksheets)
Uses MC = MR analysis in a different context
Demonstrates how emissions trading can achieve any
given pollution reduction at minimum cost
Flexible: no. of permits can be varied to demonstrate
Effect on equilibrium price
Abatement costs
Seminar can analyses worksheets of all teams after the
game
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References
Classroom Expernomics
[Link]
Charlie Holts Games papers
[Link]
Charlie Holts Veconlab
[Link]
Charles A. Holt, Markets, Games and Strategic
Behaviour, Pearson/Addison Wesley, 2006
Bringing Economic Experiments into the
Classroom (FDTL5 project: Univ. of Exeter)
[Link]