Classroom Activity: Spaceship Exercise

This semester I am teaching a service-learning course called Community Problems and Outreach. We are focusing on three main topics – families in poverty, debates over marriage, and domestic abuse. My students are volunteering at communities that serve low-income families in the community. We spend part of our time in the classroom discussing academic material on these topics, and we spend part of our time discussing their volunteer experiences. Yesterday I devoted a good portion of class time to the service side of the course. To help the students become more aware of the assumptions, biases, and prejudices that they hold, which can affect their interactions with the people they are serving, we did a short group activity. Perhaps you’ve seen a version of it before. I adapted it from a version that I participated in at a recent domestic violence training for Family Service of Central Indiana.

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Spaceship Exercise

The fate of the human race lies in your hands. NASA scientists have identified a meteor that is barreling toward the Earth. It will make impact in 60 minutes. There will be total devastation. We have time to prepare only one spaceship that can carry only 7 people off of the planet. They will be sent to colonize Zuno, a recently discovered Earth-like planet. You must choose these 7 people from the following list of 12 candidates. You have 15 minutes.

	Age	Gender	Sexual Orientation	Race/Ethnicity	Language	Occupation	Other Information
1	24	Male	Heterosexual	African American	English	Medical student
2	32	Female	Heterosexual	Caucasian	English and Spanish	Prostitute
3	28	Intersex	Bisexual	Caucasian/Jewish	English and Hebrew	Rabbi
4	28	Male	Heterosexual	Caucasian	English	Farmer	Has had a vasectomy
5	55	Female	Heterosexual	African American	English	Infectious disease medical researcher
6	6	Male		Asian American	English and Korean
7	19	Male	Homosexual	Native American	English	Professional athlete
8	26	Female	Heterosexual	Mexican American	Spanish	Homemaker	6 months pregnant
9	14	Female		African American	English		Born with leg deformities and needs a wheelchair
10	60	Male	Heterosexual	Caucasian	English	Retired CEO of major pharmaceutical company
11	40	Male	Heterosexual	Caucasian	English	Mechanic	Homeless
12	36	Female	Homosexual	Multiracial	English and German	Fourth grade teacher

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So, who would you choose? Based on what criteria? What do your choices reflect about what you value in people? What do they reflect about your assumptions regarding the characteristics about these individuals?

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Teaching is full of surprises.

Most courses in our department are capped at 70 students. And in the past I’ve had somewhere between 65 and 70 each semester. But this time around I am teaching a service-learning course, and because it takes a bit more coordinating, the department capped it at 50 students. But, I actually only have 28 enrolled. And wow. It is so different! When I was putting together the syllabus and preparing lectures I wasn’t thinking about what it would be like to stand in front of the class. I figured I might get a few butterflies before the first class meeting, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I’d done it before. But I hadn’t done it quite like this. Looking out at only 28 faces is much different from looking out at 68 faces. I love that I can actually see all of their faces – even the ones in the back of the classroom. And I love that I can see if they’re reading the newspaper or talking to their friends or texting. And the smaller class size will make learning their names much easier. However, I can also see that they’re all looking at me! I think because they know I can see them clearly, they know they have to pay attention. So when I look out at them I don’t see any tops of heads that are staring at their desk or off into space or at the cell phone in their lap. Now don’t get me wrong, I think this is great. I want them to pay attention. But it’s a bit intimidating. And unexpectedly intimidating. If anything, I thought a smaller class would be less so than a larger class.

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