The Tragedy of the Commons Simulation

The Tragedy of the Commons Teacher Guide

Thank you so much for purchasing this simulation! I think you will find the game to be engaging and an excellent starting point to discuss competition and cooperation, the tragedy of the commons, and the human default toward greed.

The class slides cover the various steps of the simulation well. Essentially, the game demonstrates how our competitive nature can ultimately be detrimental to everyone in some circumstances. If students work together, it is possible to earn 480 slips of paper. More commonly, the leading student only nets 40 or 50 slips of paper.

When choosing volunteers it sometimes works well to choose volunteers who are naturally competitive to highlight this main takeaway. To prepare, you will possibly want to print up to 480 slips of paper (in the folder). Typically, I only print about 200 because I’ve never had students that actually collaborate to the full extent.

To stoke competition you can also let students “buy” things with their slips of paper, such as a homework pass, a candy bar, or 5 minutes of talk time for the class, etc. This can accelerate the competition. Enjoy, and email with any questions about carrying the simulation out! (tristanjbernhard@gmail.com)

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