Citizens of the week

Explore the purpose of different public institutions through a creative board game about society and become the citizen of the week!

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Everything you need to play this game

A step-by-step guide to play the game

1

Gather the players/teams in front of the panel and let them explore it. Each player/team gets seven coloured bottle caps which they will need later in the game to choose tasks and score points.

2

Confront the first player with one of the 11 situations on the panel (e.g. person who is bored). Ask the player which public institution to go to if you're in a similar situation. Ask the player to explain this choice. It can be interesting to start up a group discussion with all the players from time to time.

3

After the explanation, the player chooses one of the tasks to fulfil for this institution (e.g. do something). Look up the specific task for this institution and let the player execute the task (find the full description of the tasks at Additional game info).

4

If the player succeeds for the task, the bottle cap stays on the circle of the task and one point is awarded. Once a bottle cap is placed upon a task circle, this task can not be chosen again by any other player, so that each task can only be done once.

5

After this, the next player is confronted with another situation (e.g. car accident happening). Once again, the player chooses a public institution, explains the choice and picks a task linked to this institution.

6

The players need to be creative. By choosing their public institutions and the tasks strategically, they can score more points by taking into account the scoreboard.

7

The game is finished when there are no bottle caps left.

Extra game information

On the panel, you can see seven public institutions: railway station, school, fire department, hospital, police office, city hall, community centre. Close to all of these institutions, you find different tasks to do within the white circles. In the circles, there are six different symbols. Each of these symbols stand for a specific category of tasks. The six categories are:

1. Do something: hand and explosion

2. Competition: two groups/champions on stage

3. Information: book

4. Roleplay: two masks

5. Opinion: megaphone

6. Dialogue balloon: tell something about your own experience with this institution


There are also 11 different situations on the panel:

1. Pregnant woman and passer-by

2. You are bored

3. You just moved

4. You are suffering from a burn wound

5. You want to start a business and want to learn more about mathematics

6. An accident happened

7. You need to go to work in a town ten kilometers away

8. You lost your ID

9. Your bike was stolen

10. You want to learn how to write your name

11. You see a pile of garbage that is burning


On the right hand side of the panel, you can see a blue bar. This bar is the scoreboard which indicates how you can score extra points. Players can score points by completing different tasks linked to the various institutions. If they complete a task with succes, they will get one bottle cap. By completing a combination of tasks as depicted on the blue scoreboard, players can earn extra points (e.g. complete one task of each institution, you will get three extra points OR complete one task of each of the six symbols, you get three extra points - so a player gets one point for the task + three points for the combination). The scoreboard pushes players and teams to play strategically in order to earn the most points as possible.


Task list linked to all the institutions:


1. The railway station

  • Do something: how do you think public transport will evolve in the future (22th century). Draw, explain or make your own futuristic means of transport
  • Competition: name as many means of public transport as possible
  • Information: clearly define the route from your house to the school when using public transport
  • Opinion: you are eating a banana on the bus, where do you throw the shell
  • Roleplay: somebody hops on the bus (pregnant woman, old lady, man with broken leg). You are sitting on the bus and all seats are taken. What do you do?
  • Dialogue: tell a story about a fun, exciting or boring moment that you experienced in a railway station


2. Community centre

  • Competition: name as many religions as possible
  • Do something: look for 10 pieces of litter and collect them
  • Information: what can you do in a library? (toilets, read books, internet, newspaper)
  • Opinion: what does religion mean to you? What do you do to practice your religion? How does religion help you in daily life?
  • Roleplay: start a roleplay about the use of social media (old friends find each other on Facebook, an old man tries to contact a young girl through social media)
  • Dialogue balloon: tell a story about a fun, exciting or boring moment that you experienced in a community centre


3. Town hall

  • Competition: make a paper hat as quickly as possible
  • Do something: make your own ID
  • Information: your mom has just gave birth to her second child. Help her with the birth certificate
  • Opinion: what do you think about marrying someone from another culture? What are the advantages/disadvantages? Do you think it is easy or difficult to have such a relationship?
  • Roleplay: one player is a civil servant, the other player is a citizen who doesn't speak the native language
  • Dialogue balloon: tell a story about a fun, exciting or boring moment that you experienced in the town hall


4. Hospital

  • Competition: complete an obstacle course in team with your legs tied together
  • Do something: do some work-out! (sit-ups, arm muscle exercises)
  • Information: who do you call when someone gets hurt? Which phone number do you dial?
  • Opinion: the traffic lights are green, but an ambulance with siren and flashing lights arrives. What do you do?
  • Roleplay: What do you do when someone faints?
  • Dialogue balloon: tell a story about a fun, exciting or boring moment that you experienced in the hospital


5. Fire department

  • Competition: draw a fire on the mobile school and extinguish it as quickly as possible
  • Do something: save someone from a fire. The victims legs are burned so he can not walk. Try to carry him while completing an obstacle course
  • Information: there is a fire, who do you call? Which phone number?
  • Opinion: what are things that you should NOT do when there is a fire?
  • Roleplay: how can you extinguish a fire without water?
  • Dialogue balloon: tell a story about a fun, exciting or boring moment that you experienced in the fire department


6. The school

  • Competition: complete an obstacle course without touching the ground
  • Do something: draw your ideal school or teacher
  • Information: name as many courses that you get in school
  • Opinion: what profession would you like to do in the future?
  • Roleplay: somebody of your class is the victim of bullying. What do you do?
  • Dialogue balloon: tell a story about a fun, exciting or boring moment that you experienced in school


7. Police office

  • Competition: tag game. A police man needs to tag as many 'thieves' as possible
  • Do something: draw five traffic signs
  • Information: when do you call the police? Which number do you dial?
  • Opinion: what do you expect from the police?
  • Roleplay: the neighbours are loudly playing music in the middle of the night. How do you react?
  • Dialogue balloon: tell a story about a fun, exciting or boring moment that you experienced in the police office

Variations

  • Allow the teams to choose a situation for each other.
  • Invent a crazy story to link your situation to another institution (e.g. fire department).

Specific learning objectives

  • Learn which institution serves which purpose.
  • Learn about rights and duties of citizens.

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