10 Mystery Island
Note of Caution: This activity contains details that some learners may find disturbing, making it difficult for them to engage with the content. Share a preview of the content before engaging in the activity.
This is the first RPA I developed (I’m not sure if it was 1994 or 1995). I had planned a survival lesson for one class. It all started by my telling the students they were lost on a desert island and they had to survive one day, and I gave them the tasks. I had no plans to continue; this was the lesson. However, the next day, all students told me they wanted to continue the story. And that’s how it all started.
| Level | Materials |
| B1 and up | Strips of paper
Cards (at the end of this chapter) Dream Cards (at the end of this chapter) 1 or 2 dice Note: Check the Introduction to Role-Playing Adventures for instructions on how to use the dice, how to integrate writing into the RPA, and how to adapt the RPA to different size classes. |
Storyline: Students will need to survive and find their way out of an island that is inhabited by aliens. They will need to convince the aliens to let them go. The aliens crashed on this island about 400 years ago. They are waiting for a rescue ship, which should arrive 40 years from now. They have protected the island in such a way that nobody can come in or leave. There is a force field around the island and no one from outside can see the island. They are trying to keep their advanced technology from falling into the hands of humans because they know that humanity is not ready for this kind of technology and would destroy the planet if they laid their hands on it. They’d rather die than let humans learn about them and their technology.
| # | Task | Suggested Time |
| 1. | Optional: Ask students to create a second identity (see Introduction to Role-Playing Adventures for instructions). If your students already have a second identity, you may choose to use them for this adventure.
Say: We are going to start a great adventure today. You will be explorers. You will need to survive on an island that holds a great mystery. Your mission is to solve the mystery and find a way to leave. I suggest you think carefully about what you will need for this adventure. You will be tested in many different ways. You will need to be creative, resourceful, and ingenious. Take five minutes to decide what you would like to bring with you. There are only two rules: it cannot be anything magical and you have to be able to carry it with you. Each one of you gets to carry one object with you. Choose wisely and good luck! Give students time to individually decide what to take. Encourage group discussions and suggest that each student take a different object. As they tell you what objects they are taking, ask them to give as many reasons as they can for that specific item: what it can be used for; how it can be useful; etc. |
20 – 30 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| 2. | Say: You find yourselves in a cave. It is quite wide and comfortable. You can use it for shelter, if needed. When you try to leave the cave, you notice that the entrance is in the middle of a vertical cliff. It is about 30 meters to the bottom and, as far as you can see, it is about 30 meters to the top. Looking down, you can see a small beach surrounded by cliffs. There are some palm trees and nothing else. Your first objective is to try to climb up or down the cliff. Is anyone in the class a skilled mountain climber? What are you going to use to help you? Are you going to climb up or down?
Place the students in groups and ask them to come up with a plan. When they finish, have the groups present their plans. After all the groups have presented, go back to the first group and ask them to retell their plan. As each group retell their plan, roll the die to check it was a success or a failure. For example, your students say “I have a 20-meter rope. Johnny will climb down the rope while we hold the other end. Johnny will jump the remaining 10 meters.” Say something like: “Ten meters is very high. I think he will get hurt. Well, let’s see what the die will say. If you get a 6, Johnny was successful.” Roll the die. Suppose you get a 4. Say: “I told you!! It was too high. He got hurt. Now let’s see how bad the injury was. If you get a 1 or 2, it was minor. Just some scrapes. If you get a 3 or 4, it was moderate. He strained an ankle. If you get 5 or 6, it was a serious injury. He hit his head and is lying unconscious on the ground.” The odds you give will depend on your perception of the probability or failure of success. Do the same with the ideas presented by the other groups. Note: People on the island will heal miraculously 24 hours after the incident. It is a gift provided by the aliens to the people living on the island. Do NOT tell them about the aliens, only mention the miraculous healing if anyone suffers injuries during the tasks that they will engage in (24 four hours after the accident) and invite speculations about possible explanations. |
50 – 60 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| 3. | Say: You were very ingenious in the last class and managed to leave the cave. Can you remind me of how you did it?
Note: If anyone was injured, ask the class what they will do to help the patient. If they went down to the beach, do the task described below. If they went up the cliff, skip this task and go straight to task # 4. Say: Now you are at a small beach surrounded by a 60-meter cliff. You notice that tide is going up, and you could drown. You need to find a way out as fast as possible. What are you going to do? You may conduct this activity in groups as in task #2 or with the whole class. Roll the die as students contribute their suggestions. If you get 1, 2, or 3, the suggestion was accepted; if you get 4,5 or 6 , the solution was not. Keep eliciting suggestions until the die accepts one. My personal experience: In one of my groups, the class said they were going to put a student on top of a palm tree, bend the palm tree down and launch the student up over the cliff. The die accepted this ludicrous suggestion and the class jumped for joy!!
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20 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| 4.
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Say: You are now on the top of the cliff, and you find yourselves surrounded by natives. They look very friendly, and they are pointing at you and laughing. A little boy runs forward and hugs (say a student’s name). It looks like they have never seen people like you before. What do they look like? (Invite students to describe the natives). They motion with their hands inviting you to follow them. You do not understand their language. You follow them to their indigenous community. Can you describe it? (invite students to describe the indigenous community). What are their houses like? How many houses are there? What can you observe about their daily lives? Now, you need to find a way to communicate with them. Here are strips of paper (distribute 3 to 5 strips of blank paper to each student). Please, write three to five sentences that you believe are very important to learn in their language.
Collect the strips of paper. Select ten sentences, but don’t tell the students which sentences you chose. Place students in groups and give each group 3 to 5 sentences. Say: Each group has a set of sentences. First, translate the sentences to the native’s language. You will need to invent the language. Then, prepare to teach your translated sentences to the rest of the class. There is one important rule: You cannot translate the sentences into English. You can use pictures, drawings, mimic, but no English. Give students time to prepare the sentences in the ‘native’s language’ and have them teach the sentences to the rest of the class. Prepare a poster with all the sentences in the new language.
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50 – 100 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| 5. | Say: You have had a good time with the natives and have made good friends. You’ve been there for two months now, but it’s time to try to leave the island. This is your objective. What do you plan to do?
Either have the whole class discuss possible plans or divide the class into groups and have each group come up with their ideas. DO NOT roll the dice here. Everything they try will fail. If they make a boat, for example, have them describe their building process and try to leave the island. As soon as they reach 100 miles off the coast, a “mystery force” will bring them back. Everything they try will fail.
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10 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| 6. | Say: Apparently, all your plans have failed. The natives take you to a very high tower. You climb it, and you see some strange lights in the distance. It could be a city! If you manage to get there, maybe you’ll be able to find a way out. The lights seem to be on the other side of the island, about 200 miles away. The natives point to the lights and tell you that the gods live there. However, nobody can get there. It’s prohibited by the gods. You mission is to get there and find out what the mystery of this island is. You have noticed that people heal miraculously 24 hours after they are injured. The natives believe that the gods protect them. They have tried to leave the island. In vain… Are you ready? Review the list of objects you have with you. Is there anything that the natives may give you for your journey?
Ask the class to suggest things to take. As students make suggestions, roll the dice to see if they get to keep it (see “how to use the dice” section on p. xx), and/or use your discretion.
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10 – 20 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| 7. | Say: You start your journey towards the lights. You have walked all day. It was a nice start. You are all tired now. It’s time to set up camp and go to sleep. You find a nice clearing next to a large, calm river. It looks beautiful. You take a nice bath and have something to eat. You then go to sleep. While you are sleeping, you all have a really vivid nightmare! When you start talking about it, you find out that some of the other people also had similar dreams!
Place students in small groups. Give each group one of the cards below. Ask them to create their dream using the words on the cards. Note: If any of your students have experienced one of the situations below, you might choose not to use that card. They all talk about destruction caused by the forces of nature. They relate to the advanced technology owned by the aliens who are able to control the forces of nature. Have the groups describe their dreams to the whole group and speculate about their meanings. Note: You may use this opportunity to ask the class about dreams. Do they remember their dreams? Do they have any recurrent dreams? Have they ever dreamt that they were flying? How did they fly? Etc.
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30 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| 8. | Say: It’s time to continue our trip. You need to cross the river. It looks like a calm and shallow river, but there could be dangers on the way. Are you going to take any precautions before trying to cross it? What are you going to do? (Invite their suggestions and have them choose one or two of their plans). You cross the river. When you get to the other side, you notice that you are covered by leeches. What are you going to do? Do you know how to remove leeches? What do you know about leeches?
Important note: Learning about leeches is central to this story. The aliens are dying out because their blood is clotting. Leeches are used in transplants to prevent clotting and this will be their bargaining chip with the aliens to let them leave the island. Do not tell this to the class! You may have them research about leeches or give them the text below. |
20 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
Have you ever heard of leech farms?
Leeches are segmented worms and most of them live in fresh waters. They have two suckers, one at each end, with about 300 tiny teeth. They latch their teeth onto other animals because they feed on their blood. They are not poisonous and get much bigger when they are filled with blood. They release a powerful anticoagulant chemical that is used to keep the blood flowing and preventing it from clotting.
Leeches are used in transplants and micro-surgeries to prevent blood clots while patients heal.
There are some farms around Europe that grow leeches to sell to hospitals. They are sold for 15 to 17 dollars each. One farm in Europe sells around 15,000 leeches to hospitals every year.
So, would you like to have a leech farm?
| # | Task | Suggested Time |
| 9. | Say: You arrive at the foot of a mountain. You can see lights coming from somewhere at the top of the mountain. You circle the mountain, but there is no way in. Nothing, nothing. You will need to climb it. Before you start climbing, let’s look again at the list of things we have that might help us climb it. How do you plan to do it? How can you make sure that everyone will climb up safely?
Place students in groups and ask them to come up with a plan to climb the mountain safely. When they are finished, have each group describe in detail how they plan to climb the mountain. Tell the class that they have begun climbing the mountain. Note: As students climb the mountain, the aliens will fight back using their ability to control the forces of nature. As they fight back each challenge, roll the dice as often as possible, improving the odds every time you roll them, until they reach the next platform. It doesn’t matter if their solutions are far-fetched. They will definitely have a lot of fun coming up with these outside-of-the-box ideas. Say: You start climbing. Suddenly you notice that the weather changes abruptly. A strange cloud starts forming over your heads. You can see the wind picking up speed as the clouds begin to move in. Look, a tornado is coming in your direction! What are you going to do?
Say: You have reached a platform and the storm has disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. That was strange, wasn’t it? It’s time to start climbing up again. I think this mountain is alive and is trying to kill you. Will you be able to defeat it? We will just have to see how good you are. Good luck! You start climbing again. You see another platform about 50 meters up. Oh, My God! Look! Blue steaming lava! It is coming your way! What are you going to do?
Say: Wow, that was tough, wasn’t it? What the heck is happening here? You look up and see you are near the top of the mountain. Time to get going. What’s that you hear?? It’s a kind of roaring sound. You look up. A snow avalanche will reach you in seconds! What are you going to do to survive this?
Say: (Sigh in relief) I really didn’t believe you would survive this. But you made it!! In the event that students decide not to do anything to fight off the weather condition, tell them they survived anyway. The (tornado, the blue lava, the avalanche) disappeared just before reaching them. After all, the aliens are peaceful and would never hurt other sentient beings. |
50 – 60 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| 10. | Say: You have reached the top of the mountain. You see a valley below, surrounded by the mountain on all sides. And yes, there is a city there. You can see it very well. But it is absolutely different from any city you know. And the people – if they can be called people – are also different. Could they be aliens? On one side, you can see a huge spaceship. They are definitely aliens.
Divide the class into groups and tell each group they will describe one aspect of what they see. Distribute blank sheets of flipchart paper, pencils, and markers. Give each group one of the cards below and ask them to draw what they see. When the students finish, have them present their work to the class. |
50 – 80 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
| # | Task | Suggested Time |
| 11. | Say: You try to walk down the city, but there is a force field preventing you from going forward. Your objective now is to find a way to break the force field.
With the whole class have students come up with ideas to break the force field. Note: The only solution is to start singing and/or yelling together coupled with dancing and/or stomping their feet to make the force field vibrate. The louder they sing and dance, the more the field vibrates and finally breaks. They will suggest many other things, but fail every time. If no one comes up with the idea of singing and/or yelling together coupled with dancing and/or stomping their feet, say: “Hmmmm! I think I saw the force field vibrate a little when (name of student) started stomping his/her feet in frustration.” Have students start stomping their feet and say: “Look! It’s vibrating a lot! How can we make it vibrate even more?” Alternatively, you may use the dice until they are successful.
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20 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.
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| 12. | Say: Suddenly you are teletransported to the city. You find yourselves in front of an alien. You are surrounded by a force field again. The alien looks at you and says: (the teacher plays the role of the alien)
Repeat the sentences above until your students discover what is being said. If you have a less proficient group, you may simplify the message by using chunks (e.g., in peace come we. many questions probably have you. your questions all will answer I) Place students in groups and ask them to prepare as many questions as they can to ask the aliens. Then have students interview the alien (you). When you feel that students have enough information, interrupt the session and say:
Note: Your students will interact with the aliens. You need to be prepared to answer their questions. However, say your sentences backwards. For example, if they ask you where you are from, say “away far very” instead of “very far away” or rearrange chunks. For example: “four hundred years ago here crashed we” (we crashed here 400 years ago) for a slower class. I took my laptop to class and typed in my answers. Then I read them backwards. You can use paper and pencil as well, or a tablet. This is a very interesting exercise. Your students will eventually catch on to the fact that you are speaking backwards and they will have to listen carefully to every word in order to put the sentences back together again in the right order. Read the information below carefully so that you give the right answers. If they ask you anything that is not on the information sheet below, improvise your answer. You may need to prompt your students to ask questions that are important for the outcome of the adventure. The underlined information below is crucial. To wrap up, ask the class what they learned about the aliens. |
50 – 100 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
Information about the Aliens
You are from a planet in another quadrant of the universe. You are scientists exploring the universe. Your civilization is extremely advanced and you are peaceful. You crashed on this planet 400 years ago. You had already observed the species in this planet and you know that they are very primitive. You know that they are belligerent and dangerous. If they got hold of your technology, the whole universe would be in serious danger. Your rescue ship will arrive 40 years from now. Until then you cannot allow humans to learn about your existence. However, you have been slowly dying out. Some kind of bacteria from this planet have infected the population and you have not yet found a cure. Your body fluids form clots and many of your people have already died from this disease. If you all die before the rescue ship arrives, you plan to explode the island and destroy any traces of your existence. You have also developed a product that erases all memories from someone’s minds. If you need to destroy the island, you will erase the memories from the natives who live here and let them go before exploding the island. You would never kill another living being.
You cannot risk letting them go without erasing their memories. You also suggest that they stay on the island and live with all of you, learning about your civilization, until the ship arrives and you are able to leave. If they stay, they will not have their memories erased.
| # | Task | Suggested Time |
| 13. | Say: So, you have found out that the aliens are dying out. You have the solution for their illness!
Ask the class if they know what the cure is. If they don’t remember promptly ask them to think back about what happened during the adventure until they remember the leeches. Say: Now you have something to offer in exchange for your release. Tell them to prepare to negotiate with the alien. As you are playing the role of the alien, accept the negotiation under the condition that they accept erasing their memories. Also, invite them to stay on the island for the next 40 years and learn with you. There is one problem, though: because of the force field, everyone will become infertile, that is, will never be able to bear children. After the negotiation, place students in groups. Give each group the card below and ask them to discuss the two possibilities offered by the alien and be prepared to explain their choice. Whatever students decide (stay on the island or leave immediately), tell them that they have accomplished their mission and congratulate them on their courage and resourcefulness. |
50 – 60 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary. |
Option 1 – Stay on the island and take advantage of this opportunity to learn about an alien civilization, about the universe, etc. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And you get to keep your memory. You could write a book when you leave the island.
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Option 2 – Go home. Forty years is a very long time. When you leave the island, you will be old. Also, there is the problem of infertility. You will never be able to have children. Is it worth it?
Cards, Pictures, and illustrations (Photocopiable)
Cards
Have you ever heard of leech farms?
Leeches are segmented worms and most of them live in fresh waters. They have two suckers, one at each end, with about 300 tiny teeth. They latch their teeth onto other animals because they feed on their blood. They are not poisonous and get much bigger when they are filled with blood. They release a powerful anticoagulant chemical that is used to keep the blood flowing and preventing it from clotting. Leeches are used in transplants and micro-surgeries to prevent blood clots while patients heal. There are some farms around Europe that grow leeches to sell to hospitals. They are sold for 15 to 17 dollars each. One farm in Europe sells around 15,000 leeches to hospitals every year. So, would you like to have a leech farm?
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| Group 1: Draw and be prepared to describe the inhabitants of the city.
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| Group 2: Draw and be prepared to describe the buildings of the city.
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| Group 3: Draw and be prepared to describe the means of transportation you see in the city.
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| Group 4: Draw and be prepared to describe a pet you see with one of the inhabitants.
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| Group 5: Draw and be prepared to describe the spaceship.
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| Information about the Aliens
You are from a planet in another quadrant of the universe. You are scientists exploring the universe. Your civilization is extremely advanced and you are peaceful. You crashed on this planet 400 years ago. You had already observed the species in this planet and you know that they are very primitive. You know that they are belligerent and dangerous. If they got hold of your technology, the whole universe would be in serious danger. Your rescue ship will arrive 40 years from now. Until then you cannot allow humans to learn about your existence. However, you have been slowly dying out. Some kind of bacteria from this planet have infected the population and you have not yet found a cure. Your body fluids form clots and many of your people have already died from this disease. If you all die before the rescue ship arrives, you plan to explode the island and destroy any traces of your existence. You have also developed a product that erases all memories from someone’s minds. If you need to destroy the island, you will erase the memories from the natives who live here and let them go before exploding the island. You would never kill another living being. You cannot risk letting them go without erasing their memories. You also suggest that they stay on the island and live with all of you, learning about your civilization, until the ship arrives and you are able to leave. If they stay, they will not have their memories erased.
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| Option 1 – Stay on the island and take advantage of this opportunity to learn about an alien civilization, about the universe, etc. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And you get to keep your memory. You could write a book when you leave the island.
——————————————————————————————————————————— Option 2 – Go home. Forty years is a very long time. When you leave the island, you will be old. Also, there is the problem of infertility. You will never be able to have children. Is it worth it?
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Dream Cards
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