MICROSOCIETY

This week in Rigel we have been learning about Microsociety. Microsociety is when you create a world of your own in your class but everyone has to agree to all the rules and terms. This week in class we have been learning about scarcity and how some people don't have enough of what they need.

On Wednesday, we looked at the child's hierarchy of needs which was just a big pyramid about what children need the most at the bottom and what children need the least at the top. It said that the things that children need the most are: shelter, food, water and some kind of love and affection.

Then Mr Woods told us a story about the people of Just Enough who didn't care for their planet because the planet cared for them. All their food was given in packs from a computer where the most popular foods were beef ribs and strawberry trifle and everyone took those first and fruits and vegetables were either taken last or not at all. This odd planet had trees that grew these foods and there were more trees that grew beef ribs and strawberry trifle than trees that grew spinach or broccoli.

One day the computer started to break down and there were fewer and fewer packs of food per day. Eventually the food on Just Enough had run out and the people of this planet were starving and didn't know who to give the last remaining food pack to. Mr Woods then asked us what we would do in that situation. Some people said that they would plant it. Others said to share it. I said we could trade it for other food with other planets. Mr Woods acknowledged all our ideas then told us it was the end of our microsociety lesson for that day.

On Thursday, we thought of a flag and name for our microsociety. Mr Woods decided to do it lie a competition and each table had to create a flag and name but if your flag didn't win then your name might or the other way round. Sadly, our table's flag didn't win but Tom's did. Somehow our name did win and our microsociety was now called Rigopolis.

On Friday, we played a game called Shapes and we were put into teams of 5. At the start our teams had to pick a letter and that letter determined which pack you got. Within the pack were items you needed to use to make a 10 cm sided square and a circle with a 10 cm diameter and they had to be perfect and only within 1 mm away. If a shape was t big or too small it was put in the bin. One square equalled 5 points, one circle equalled 5 points and each counter cost points and we only had 20 mins. Our team only got a pencil, a ruler, a pair of scissors, 2 counters and 2 sheets of paper and so did Team C. Team F and E only got 10 sheets of paper, a pencil and 1 counter whereas Team A and B got 2 pairs of scissors, a pencil, a ruler, a compass and 6 counters. We were Team D. We were allowed to trade and Mr Woods (the banker) added up the points. After 20 mins of tense playing the scores were added and it turned out that we were in third place. C was in second place and A was in first place. Mr Woods then told us that he expected A and B to win because they had all the equipment apart from paper but they traded that for a pair of scissors from teams F and E.

We learnt an important lesson in Microsociety this week and that was to work together as a team, to not groan for what you don't have but to be glad for what you do have and to use what you do have to help you and others around you.