Ten square miles into the future

Daisy Glass (she/her); Maria Glass (she/her)

9 Ten square miles into the future

Level

Materials

B1 and up

Dice

Copy of cards (at the end of the chapter)

Copy of handout (at the end of the chapter)

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: This RPA was inspired by a sci-fi novel titled City at World’s End, by Edmond Hamilton. In this story, a nuclear explosion caused a neighborhood to be thrown into the future, some thousand years into the future. This is what happens in our RPA: The planet is dead due to the radioactivity of the nuclear war that followed the crisis. The population of the planet went underground to survive the catastrophe, but the planet slowly died out – the plants, the vegetation, etc., all died. This forced the evacuation of all survivors to another planet. The objective of the group is to discover what happened, find their way to Bomfim Town, a nearby city, and send a rescue message to the other planet.

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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.

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Tell students that they all have an annoying bad habit/traits (find cards with the annoying habit/trait at the end of this chapter). Spread the cards over a table (choose the ones that are culturally suitable for your class). Invite students to choose one card and incorporate it to their second ID.

After students have chosen their card, ask them to tell the class what their annoying habit/trait is and, if possible, elaborate on it.

20 – 30 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

Note: The suggested time does not include the creation of a second ID.

2.

Tell students they will participate in a very dangerous adventure in the city of Glasswoods in the year of 1962.

Place students in groups and give each group the card below. Tell them to draw a map of the city based on the information they have.

After each group presents their map, ask the class to choose one for the adventure.

50 – 60 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

Glasswoods is located somewhere in the Midwest of the United States. The community was named after two prominent families, the Glasses and the Woods. It is a very small town, with less than 1,000 inhabitants, covering an area of about 10 square miles. There is only one high school and one elementary school. Of course, there is a main street and some worship temples. Most of the population work for large aircraft manufacturing companies, located just outside town.

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Task

Suggested Time

3.

Tell students they travelled to Glasswoods. They all travelled together and had a wonderful first day in GlassWoods.

Place students in groups. Give them 10 minutes to decide what happened. Give each group one of the cards below.

Have the groups present their work to the whole class. As they present their ideas, write key words on the board.

After the presentations, ask each group to retell what another group said using the key words on the board.

30 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

You are backpacking with your friends. You have just arrived in Glasswoods. You made a friend (Who? Where? What did you do together?)

You are backpacking with your friends. You have just arrived in Glasswoods. You got a temporary job for 3 days (What is it? Where? To do what? How much?)

You are backpacking with your friends. You have just arrived in Glasswoods. You found a place to stay for free (How? Where? Why?)

You are backpacking with your friends. You have just arrived in Glasswoods. You got food for free for the day (How? Where? Who?)

You are backpacking with your friends. You have just arrived in Glasswoods. You earned money (How? How much?)

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Task

Suggested Time

4.

Tell the class that a very important historical event happened in October 1962. Give a copy of the handout below to each student and read the text with them.

If there is any vocabulary students don’t know, ask them to look it up on their own and prepare to explain the words they learned to the class.

Optional: Take a look at Part 4 (Vocabulary Activities and Games) for ideas on how to teach or review vocabulary.

15 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE CRISIS

“Nuclear catastrophe was hanging by a thread… and we weren’t counting days or hours, but minutes.”

-Soviet General and Army Chief of Operations, Anatoly Gribkov

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to a nuclear war. The United States Armed Forces were at their highest state of readiness ever, and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted.

In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe, but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. A deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island nation from an attack by the U.S. Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Castro felt a second attack was inevitable. Consequently, he approved of Khrushchev’s plan to place missiles on the island. In the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build its missile installations in Cuba.

During the public phase of the Crisis, tensions began to build on both sides. Kennedy eventually ordered low-level reconnaissance missions once every two hours. Then on the 26th, Khrushchev sent an impassioned letter to Kennedy. He proposed removing Soviet missiles and personnel if the U.S. would guarantee not to invade Cuba. On October 27th , Attorney General Robert Kennedy contacted Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to tell him of the U.S. agreement.

Tensions finally began to ease on October 28th, when Khrushchev announced that he would dismantle the installations and return the missiles to the Soviet Union, expressing his trust that the United States would not invade Cuba. Further negotiations were held to implement the October 28th agreement, including a United States demand that Soviet light bombers be removed from Cuba, and specifying the exact form and conditions of United States assurances not to invade Cuba.

Adapted from http://www.jfklancer.com/jfk1bop.html

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Task

Suggested Time

5.

Tell the class that in our adventure the US and Russia were not able to find a solution for the impasse, and that a nuclear war broke out.

Say: You are in Glasswoods. It is 6:00 o’clock in the afternoon. You are at your new friend’s house. Besides all of you, only your new friend is there. You are all in the yard enjoying the beautiful sunset. Suddenly you see missiles cruising over your head. Your friend immediately starts running towards the back of the yard. He/she is calling you, saying you need to get into the bunker for protection. He/she opens a door to the pool house and closes it behind you. She then walks to a trapdoor in the ground. You see some stairs going down. You enter a bunker. Your friend closes the trapdoor behind him/her. It is very dark. Then, your friend turns on the lights. S/He then goes back out to look for a friend. What is the bunker like?

With the whole group. Place a blank flipchart paper on the board. Have students take turns drawing a blue-print of the bunker (are there separate rooms? How many? How many beds? What about bathrooms?). The teacher may roll the dice here to determine how many bedrooms, beds, bathrooms, etc.

At the end of the activity you may want to affix the blueprint on the wall for further reference.

40 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

6.

Place students in groups and give each group one of the cards below. Tell them they will have only 15 minutes for this activity. Give each group a bilingual dictionary or tell them to use an online dictionary for this task.

The groups present their final lists. When they finish, roll the die and tell them they have to cut some items off of their list (if you get 1 or 2, they have to cut 10%; if you get 3 or 4, they have to cut 20%, and 5 or 6, 30%).

Ask students to go back to their groups and decide which items to cut out. Give them 5 minutes for this task.

Invite one volunteer from each group to tell the class what they kept and what they cut out. If you have time, ask them to explain what they based their decisions on.

Compile the final lists for further reference.

My personal experience: After I had the compiled list I distributed it to the students and told them they could change two or three items from the list. One of the students was a homeopath doctor, and he suggested adding hydrogen peroxide. He gave a wonderful lesson on the uses of hydrogen peroxide.

50 – 80 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

Group A: Make a detailed list of the food you have in the bunker. Include quantities.

Group B: Make a detailed list of kitchen, bathroom furniture, fixtures, appliances, and toiletries you have in the bunker. Include quantities.

Group C: Make a detailed list of tools you have in the bunker. Include quantities.

Group D: Make a detailed list of bedroom and recreational items you have in the bunker. Include quantities.

Group E: Make a detailed list of medical supplies you have in the bunker. Include quantities.

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Task

Suggested Time

7.

Tell the class that your new friend never came back. They will need to stay as long as possible in the bunker because there may be deadly levels of radiation outside.

Place students in groups and give each group a list with the names of all participants, including their bad habits/traits, and ask them to decide (a) who is going to sleep where (Are there enough bed for the whole class? Will they have to share beds or take turns?), and (b) the rules of good coexistence (Is everybody responsible for washing their own dirty dishes? Who will make the beds? Who will cook?)

Tell the groups to present their solutions and ask the class to choose one.

50 – 80 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

8.

Say: Twenty days have passed, and you are running out of food. It is time to get out of the bunker. You open the trapdoor and walk up to the front door of the pool house. You try to open the door, but it is stuck. It is a thick steel door. You need to figure out how to open it.

Ask the class to give suggestions. There is only one possible solution (removing the hinges from the door); everything else they suggest , tell them it didn’t work. If they never mention hinges, give them some clues (“Look at the door”, “What keeps the door in place?”, etc.).

10 – 30 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

9.

Say: You have finally opened the door. To your surprise, there’s a thick layer of ice in front of it. What are you going to do?

As students give suggestions, roll the die. 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.

10 – 20 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

10.

Say: Finally, you leave the bunker. This is what you see outside: Everything seems to be the same as before, except that it is really cold, freezing cold. The sun seems dim and there is snow everywhere. You look around and you see an old man, shivering next to a fire he has built. Apparently, he is burning some furniture! You approach the man and talk to him.

The teacher may play the role of the old man or give the card below for one of the students to play his role. Tell the class to ask questions.

Provide all the information in the card below, even if the students don’t ask you.

After the interview, with the whole class, prepare a poster with a summary of the information they got from the old man. At this point, you may want to ask the class to come up with possible explanation of what is going on. Do not confirm or deny any of the explanations.

50 – 60 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

Information to resident:

You were one of the residents who got into a shelter in time before the explosion of the missiles. You and the other residents came out of the shelter the day after the explosion. Nobody was hurt or injured. It was suddenly very quiet and very cold. The sun seemed dimmer. When people tried to leave the city, they found that only ten square miles of the city itself looked the same as before. However, as soon as you left the city, everything around looked different. There were buildings and houses in places where there used to be a farm, but everything was deserted. You couldn’t find anybody in these unexpected new neighborhoods, except the ones who lived in your city. All communication is dead. During the night, it was terribly cold and people began using the fuel supplies they could find to keep warm. When they ran out of fuel, they started burning furniture, wood houses, anything they could lay their hands on. Chaos became the norm. People killed their neighbors for food and fire. All residents have left town except for you. You haven’t heard anything from them, absolutely nothing. You are too old and decided to stay behind and die in peace. All the stores have been looted and the supply of food and water is getting very scarce.

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Task

Suggested Time

11.

Say: According to the old man, the city has been looted, and food is scarce. He told you something very interesting about some new houses and building he had never seen before. That’s where you will find the information you need to save yourselves. You visit the new neighborhood. It’s almost a copy of your city, but the buildings look futuristic in their designs. There is a high school and an elementary school, worship temples, a library, as well as some shops. You have a new mission: find out what happened and find a way to survive.

Ask the class where they want to go first in the new neighborhood. As they visit different places, roll the die to see if they found something useful. If you get 1, 2, or 3, it’s a yes; if you get 4,5 or 6 , it’s a no. If the die is generous, ask the class what they found.

Say: You also found a kind of car that is completely different from any car you have seen. It looks like something from a sci-fi movie.

Ask the class to describe it. If you have a student who can draw, you may invite him/her to draw the car on the board as the class describes it.

50 – 60 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

12.

Repeat the activity above for each place the students visit. In each place give them something they want and tell what they found in each place. The clue for place one (the futuristic car) was given in the previous task. Here are the other four clues – one for each place they visit:

Place 2: You find an old letter in a trash can. It says:

Dear Mommy,

It is time to go and we are all excited about this new planet. I hear that you will be with the next group. Do you think they will let you bring Dixty with you? I miss him so much!

Love,

Danny

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Place 3: You find an old newspaper clipping:

ASSEMBLY OF SECOND SHUTTLE HAS BEGUN

The government has just announced that NASA has started assembling the second shuttle. It should be ready in 20 years and will hold 30,000 passengers. Three more shuttles are being assembled by a consortium formed by the EU, the Pacific Nations, and the Amazon Republic.

Meanwhile, scientists are still trying to find a way to slow down the extinction of earth’s micro-organisms.

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Place 4: On a wall, you find the following framed newspaper clipping:

1,000-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY REMAINS

One thousand years after the World Nuclear War, the disappearance of Glasswoods still puzzles scientists all over the world. There are no clues to what happened to those ten square miles.

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Place 5: You find something that could be a futuristic tablet. It might contain information. (Have students draw it and then have them try to turn it on. Roll the dice as they suggest different solutions until they do turn it on.) On the screen you will find the following message:

December 24, 3104

To all citizens of New Glasswood. The day has finally come. The US Evacuation Center in Bomfim Town is ready to send the last American evacuees to Shuttle Endeavour VII. Transportation of evacuees will start at 5:00 a.m. promptly, in front of Glasswood Elementary School. The shuttles are due to take off to Endeavour VII on the 25th at 6:00 a.m. If you are not at Glasswood Elementary school at 5:00 a.m. today, we will understand that you have chosen not to leave.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and may our life on New Horizons be a happy and fruitful one.

Mark Spencer

Mayor

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Place students in groups. Have each group examine the clues they got and come up with a story that explains what happened when the nuclear war broke out. After all groups have presented their story, give them the following handout and check to see which group came closest to the original story.

Say: This is what happened. Let’s see which group got the closest to the original story.

A nuclear war broke out in 1962. When a nuclear head exploded just above your bunker, the whole area (about 10 square miles) was transported into the future. The radiation generated by the nuclear war caused the death of half the earth’s population. It took about 100 years for mankind to get radiation under control. However, the microorganisms began to slowly die out. Scientists worked hard to slow down the process. They were able to slow it down but not to stop it. They realized that, without these microorganisms, the planet was doomed to die. That’s when they started working on a plan to evacuate the planet Earth: first to the moon and Mars and then to another planet which was terraformed and prepared to receive the earth’s population.

50 – 80+ minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

13.

Say: You have a new mission. Send a message to the evacuees that there are still people on the planet and to ask them to send a rescue ship. In order to do that, you need to cross the desert and get to Bomfim City, 100 miles east of Glasswoods. Remember that it is a complete desert. There’s no life on planet Earth anymore. So, you will need to prepare for the trip. Think back to what happened to you, the things you still have in the bunker, or other things you have found around the city.

Place student in groups and ask each group to make a list of what they will take with them on the trip. Tell them that the list must be limited to 30 items.

When the groups finish making the lists, have the groups take turns reading the items. Before they start, tell them that only the items that appear on all the lists will be kept. As students read each item, the other groups check whether that item appears on their lists. If an item appears on all the lists, write it on the board. The students will be allowed to take it on their trip. Otherwise, it’s out.

Note: Remember to hand out the list of things they had in the bunker. See task # 6.

40 – 50 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

14.

Say: Now that you have decided what to take on your trip, it’s time to go. You will need to go on foot. Remember that some people have left Glasswoods according to the old man. They may attack you looking for food.

You have been on the road for 5 hours when you are hit by a sandstorm. A big one! The wind is blowing at over 120 miles per hour. You can’t see anything. What are you going to do?

Ask the class for suggestions. As they contribute suggestions, roll the die to see if it is a good idea. If you get 1, 2, or 3, it’s a yes; if you get 4,5 or 6 , it’s a no.

Note: This might be a good opportunity to discuss with students what to do in a sandstorm. There are several websites (e.g. https://www.wiredforadventure.com/how-to-survive-a-sandstorm/ ) that explain how to survive a sandstorm.

20 – 30 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

15.

Say: You all manage to get to Bomfim City. Everything has become a desert. There was no sign of life anywhere during the trip. You did see some signs of water, but no sign of life. Describe your trip. What is the weather like?

Place students in small groups and ask them to collaboratively write a short text describing their trip, including the sandstorm, the signs of water, the weather, etc. Tell them they will have 20 minutes to write their text.

Before they start, brainstorm adjectives that might appear in the description. Point out that the use of adjectives will make their stories more interesting.

When time is up, ask for a volunteer from each group to read the descriptions and post them on the wall.

My personal experience: Sometimes, when my focus is on fluency and meaning, I do not correct their writing work. When there is an important mistake, I may select it and work on it without pointing out which group committed the mistake.

40 – 60 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

16.

Say: Bomfim is definitely a futuristic town. There are many buildings and houses, all constructed around a central, round, beautiful building. You see nobody. You go into this central building and you find a transmission room. But there is no electricity and no energy source. You examine the mechanism trying to find out what the energy source is.

Ask the class for suggestions. As they contribute suggestions, roll the die to see if that is the energy source. If you get 1, 2, or 3, it’s a yes; if you get 4,5 or 6 , it’s a no.

10 – 20 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

17.

Say: You are very resourceful and creative people! I am impressed! You have been able to turn on and access the communication device. As you study it, you find out that your message cannot have more than 100 characters. Can you work on writing a message that will be understood?

Place student in groups and ask each group to compose a 100-character message. Tell them they will have 10 minutes for this task.

When time is up, ask the groups to present their solutions and have the class choose one.

20 – 30 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

18.

Say: Mission accomplished! You have managed to send the message. One hour later, you get a response. It reads: Rescue mission on the way. Arrival in 2 days.

5 minutes depending on the level of the students, size of the class, and previous knowledge of the vocabulary.

Cards, Pictures, and illustrations (Photocopiable)

Cards