Global Inequality Game



This activity is designed to get students thinking about the distribution of population and wealth in the world. It gets the students out of their seats and provides a ready mental image to associate with global inequality. The key to making this activity a success is creating the right atmosphere! The kids must be relaxed and prepared to speak their mind. Reassure them that it's not a test and there is no right/wrong answer! The amount of English you can incorporate will depend on the level of your students. Continent and country names, large numbers and debating skills are all possibilities.

Procedure
Start by telling the class that the classroom is the world, and the students represent the entire world population. Get them to tell you the world population and then use the Population spreadsheet to tell them how many million people they each represent! Introduce the five continents of the world (for this activity divided into: USA & Canada; Latin America; Europe; Africa; Asia; Oceania) and place an A4 sheet in five corners of the room to represent them. Ask the students to distribute themselves among the continents in what they imagine to be the correct proportions. This invariably leads to an overpopulation of the USA & Canada and and underpopulation of Asia. The key thing is to get the students discussing and arguing amongst themselves what they think the correct answer is. After a period of time ask the students if they are happy with their guess and then reveal the truth using the spreadsheet. Cue the "Eeeehh's!" of suprise! Rearrange the students into the correct proportions.

Next is the distribution of world wealth. Get the students to guess how much money there is in the world and then tell them the actual figure. Writing out such a huge number on the board makes a big impression, especially when using Japanese yen! Then introduce the same number of chairs as students (give or take - refer to the Wealth spreadsheet) to represent world wealth. Impress them by telling them how much one of their grotty school chairs is now worth! Again, ask the students to distribute the chairs among the continents as they see fit, all the while maintaining the correct proportions of population as established above. Again debate, discussion and even fighting over these ultra-valuable chairs is encouraged! After they have settled on an answer refer to the spreadsheet and tell them the awful truth. This usually involves taking chairs from Asia and giving them to the USA & Canada and/or Europe.

At the end of the activity the class is left with the memorable image of one or two lucky students in the USA & Canada luxuriating on their many chairs while the Africans and Asians are forced to fight for a place to sit, if they even have chairs at all.

Resources
Documents Images
 * World Population Sheet
 * World Wealth Sheet
 * World Map
 * Africa
 * Asia
 * USA & Canada
 * Oceania
 * Europe
 * Latin America