Essential Questions
What is needed to host a successful Game of Life event?
What are the benefits of hosting Game of Life?
Learning Goals
Experience a modified version of the Game of Life.
Discuss challenges of implementing the Game of Life.
Develop a plan for implementing a Game of Life activity at your own location.
Materials List
Presentation Slides (attached)
Booth Materials (Samples) packet (attached; 1 per participant)
Event Setup packet (attached; 1 per participant)
Chance Cards (attached)
Sample Career Ledgers (attached; see printing instructions in Engage below)
Prize wheel or a bowl with colored paper to match ledgers
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 2 of the attached Presentation Slides and make introductions.
Show slide 3 and have participants record their thoughts in the Mentimeter. Share the Mentimeter results with participants and reflect on what they see. Move to slides 4–5 and connect responses to the Game of Life and the PD’s essential questions and learning objectives.
Explore
30 Minute(s)
Move to slide 6. Participants will now get to experience a sample of what students will do when playing The Game of Life. If you have enough facilitators, you can have them man the sample booths, or if your group is small enough, you can move through the booths together. Participants follow the directions at each booth and use their ledger to budget and make decisions. At 10-minute intervals, spin the Chance Wheel or pull a color paper from a bowl. The participants with that color ledger come up to get a chance card. Have the participants read their chance cards aloud to the group so that others can have a better idea of what scenarios are on the cards.
After going through the sample booths, move to slide 7. Give participants time to record their responses to How Am I Feeling? What Am I Thinking? Ask for volunteers to share out. Make connections to what they mentioned in the Mentimeter about student misconceptions.
Explain
30 Minute(s)
Go through slides 8–10 to see examples of how some schools have implemented Game of Life. Talk about set up, logistics, and student responses. Move to slide 11 and hand out the Booth Materials Sample Packet. As participants go over the materials, use a modified S-I-T (Surprising, Interesting, Troubling) strategy to encourage them to add notes to sticky notes for the following prompts:
Strongest aspect of this activity
Most Intimidating part of facilitating this activity
Timing of the activity
Give them time to discuss what they recorded in small groups and then share out to the larger group.
Extend
30 Minute(s)
Display slide 12 and hand out the Event Setup packet and have them turn to the planning checklist. Give participants time to think about the tasks and time frame to use backward design to begin scheduling and planning their event.
Slide 13 has a QR code to the Game of Life Educator Resource on LEARN. The activity includes a detailed narrative for integrating the event and all of the materials to host The Game of Life.
Move to slide 14 and give participants time to share out and ask questions about what they saw in both the planning materials and the LEARN student activity.
Evaluate
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 15. As an Exit Ticket, ask: How does the Game of Life address some of the misconceptions students have about life after high school?
Give participants time to share their thoughts. Encourage them to reach out to the presenters with any questions they might have as they work through planning and hosting their event.
Follow-Up Activities
If a school is interested in hosting the Game of Life, scheduling regular check-ins to address planning progress or specific needs could help ensure a successful event.
Research Rationale
College can be a life-altering experience for students, and not only academically. Here are just a few of the ways in which college can change students' lives for the better: Earning a bachelor's degree will allow students to earn, on average, $1 million more than high school graduates over the course of their careers (Abel & Deitz, 2014). College offers students an opportunity to build relationships with mentors and peers that will benefit them throughout their careers (Campbell, Smith, Dugan, & Komives, 2012). College graduates tend to have more job satisfaction, jobs that offer a greater sense of accomplishment, more independence and opportunities for creativity, and more social interactions in their jobs than noncollege graduates (Oreopoulos & Petronijevic, 2013). College graduates increase their chances of employment. Over the last 20 years, the unemployment rate for college graduates has been approximately half that of high school graduates (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018). College helps students develop skills that prepare them for careers in the tech-driven economy, including nonroutine, abstract skills that aid in problem-solving, multitasking, and creativity (Oreopoulos & Petronijevic, 2013).
Resources
Abel, J. R., & Deitz, R. (2014). Do the benefits of college still outweigh the costs? Current Issues in Economics and Finance, 20(3
). https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/current_issues/ci20-3.pdf
Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2018). Labor force statistics from the current population survey. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat07.htm
Campbell, C. M., Smith, M., Dugan, J. P., & Komives, S. R. (2012). Mentors and college student leadership outcomes: The importance of position and process. The Review of Higher Education, 35(4), 595-625. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/478995
K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell Ringers and Exit Tickets. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/125
K20 Center. (n.d.). Game of Life. Educator Resource. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/educator-resource/1710
K20 Center. (n.d.). How Am I Feeling? What Am I Thinking? Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/187
K20 Center. (n.d.). S-I-T. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/926
Oreopoulos, P. & Petronijevic, U. (2013). Making college worth it: A review of the returns to higher education. The Future of Children, 23(1), (41–65). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25522645/