Playing Pandemic...during a pandemic.

I know, I know! Maybe it's a little too....meta.

The 6th/7th grade students have been learning about different types of cells. We've discussed the differences between animal cells and plant cells. We compared bacteria cells to a virus, and debated whether or not we believed a virus should be classified as a living thing.

Last week I digitized a shortened version of the classic Pandemic game so we could play together in class. The students are, understandably, a little jaded about anything named "Pandemic", so they were less than enthusiastic when we first started. By the end, though, they were able to draw some very important conclusions and parallels to our real life pandemic. If you've never played, Pandemic is a cooperative game - everyone works together to beat the game. Our class lost, but that made the reflections so much more powerful.

Pandemic Reflections:

• Too much time treating disease in individual cities and not enough focus on finding a cure

• Needed to share information with other groups earlier in the game in order to develop a cure

• Just because the disease no longer seems active in an area doesn't mean that area can't become infected again

• Didn't utilize the special knowledge/skills each player had to the maximum benefit

• Too focused on moving my own pawn, instead of talking to the entire group about what moves would be the most beneficial for everyone

Just a game? No, it was more of a diving board into some realistic discussions about all the moving parts that are necessary when trying to manage a pandemic.