Mr. Brenckle's Lord of the Flies web quest

While on a flight to an exotic destination for a wonderful field trip, your plane begins to shake violently from side to side. The pilot's voice announces over the intercom that one of the engines has failed. The plane begins to spiral downwards. 

You awaken on a sunny shoreline with other survivors of the crash scattered all along the beach. You soon realize that ou are one of the oldest survivors, as all adults perished during the flight. Throughout the day, no one makes any move to scout the area, start a fire, take names, or check on injuries. You and your partner (or group) realize that you must take control and assume responsibility of the survivors, since no one else is willing to step forward. You take count and realize that you have five people ages 15-16, twenty five people ages 7-13, and twenty people under the age of 7.

You are responsible for creating a small society to live in until you are rescued. What kind of society will it be?

You will work in pairs (or at most, a group of 3) to create a new society. You must determine how your society will be structured, make decisions based on hypothetical scenarios, and then predict its outcome after one year.



To create a successful society and survive until you are rescued, you will have to explore what causes people to work together and explore the darker sides of the human psyche and the dangers of power and blind ambition. You'll also research some basic psychological theories that will help you understand human nature and predict how people will behave in your new society.

Before you begin, you need to determine the roles that you each will have in this project-

Since your group has decided to assume responsibility over the survivors, you decide that you need to divide the responsibilities of running a society among yourselves.

Leader: Responsible for announcing and enforcing whatever rules or laws are passed. The face of the group. You are in charge of making sure each question is answered and recorded correctly in your group journal. 

Hunter/Explorer: Responsible for gathering any resources necessary for the society and exploring any websites for information that will be important in your group decision making. 

* If there are three people in your group, you will assign one person to be scribe (who will record all of the answers and or assist the explorer in their research. 

In your journal:

1. Record your group members' roles

Part  1 - Government

If you are to start your own society, you will have to choose a type of government to base your decisions off of. The citizens have taken a vote and it came up as a tie. Half of the survivors said they want a Democracy and the other half said that they want a Dictatorship. The decision is laid at your group's feet to decide. 

Before you make your decision, you must research what each government entails and what effect it would have on your new society. You don't have to mimic the government type completely, you're only choosing which one you would base yours off of or borrow most heavily from. You can make any changes you want to the policies once you make your choice.

Democracy:

• What is Democracy?
• Democracy described by the U.S.
• A simplified definition

Dictatorship:

• What is a dictatorship?
• Dictatorship vs. Democracy

In your journal, in complete sentences, answer the following:

1. Record your group's decision and what influenced you to come to this decision. If you chose Democracy, say why and then explain why you didn't want a Dictatorship. If you chose a Dictatorship, explain why and then list what made you not want a Democracy.                
2. Think about the Lord of the Flies in the context of Democracy versus Dictatorship. Did this influence your decision at all?

Part 2

You can't organize a successful society unless you understand what motivates people and how they function. Research the following links, then answer the questions in your journal. Make sure you label them Part 2.

-

Explore these psychology links for information. After you've researched, decide your opinion on the following concepts and respond to the questions.



  1. How might the concept of groupthink affect your society's decision making progress?

2. Are people always motivated by psychological egoism or does psychological altruism motivate people sometimes? Justify your opinion. Use specific evidence from your research to back up your claims.                                                                                                                                                             

3. How will this affect how you organize your society? Anticipate possible problems and solutions.



4. The members of your society will be at various stages in Kohlberg's theory of moral development, with many never progressing past the early

stages. How will this affect your society and how you organize it? Anticipate possible problems and solutions.

• social psychology basics
• groupthink vs. individualism\
• psychological egoism and altruism
• Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

PART 3: Your next priority is to assess your society members' needs - both current and future, then answer the follwing questions in your journal. Make sure you label them PART 3.

• Start by checking out Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

1. Now make a numbered list of what your members need immediately and how your society can meet those demands.

2. Next, make a separate numbered list of what your members may need in the future, after their immediate needs are met. How will you meet those needs?

3. Label each need that you identified according to where Maslow places it in his hierarchy.

4. What observations or conclusions can you make?

5. Why must some needs be taken care of before others?

6. How will this affect your new society's priority now?

Explore the political philosophy link below. Start with the links explaining what social contract theory is.  

• • social contract theory basic definition 
  • social contract theory summary 

Now read about the viewpoints of the following philosophers in regard to social contract theory. 

• • Thomas Hobbes 
  • John Locke 
  • Lock vs. Hobbes chart

7.. Which philosopher's theory do you think will help you create a successful society? Why?

8. . What could be some possible downsides of governing with this philosophy? Identify and explain. 

The theory you support should guide your decisions from this point on

Part 4 - Bill of Rights

Now that you have a government, the next step in creating your civilization is outlining some of the most basic elements of any civilization. You and your group going to draft your own Bill of Rights for your citizens as well as list the laws of your new society. Think about any rights you think should never be taken away? Would laws or rights have help you in a survival situation? 

-These are going to be your society's two official government documents, so treat them as such. You will write them on their own separate sheets of paper, you will come up with a title for each, and your group must sign both at the bottom- 

For your Bill of Rights you will be researching examples of human rights from countries around the world. You must come up with at least six rights that you will give to your citizens. For every right that you record onto your official document, you must elaborate and explain what that right entails. 

• For your list of laws, you will create a list of at least six that your citizens will have to follow. You will explain your laws and then decide within your group how you will enforce them. 

Examples of human rights:

• Simplified version of the Bill of Rights
• The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
• Human Rights in China

Note: If you are a Dictatorship, your leader has the power to veto any rights or laws suggested by the other group member.

STEP 5: Now it's time to put your society to the test.

• Follow the link to the hypothetical scenarios to determine how your society will function in these situations. Respond to the questions for each.

Part 6 Rescue

Having established a way of life and society, you can now work on being rescued with no rush or urgency. Hopefully you have time to wait for rescue, unlike the boys in the Lord of the Flies. 

For your rescue plan you need to brainstorm ideas with your group to figure out how you are going to be rescued from your island. You can choose anything and creativity is encouraged. Your group needs to explain the points of the plan, where you get your supplies, how long does it take to complete it, and any other information you can include. Some examples for rescue would be a plane flying overhead, a cruise ship passing by, or a raft is built. Also, be realistic.  Detail who is saved. Is every citizen from your island evacuated? Do you only save your group members? Do citizens perish in the attempt to leave the island? Use the following real life examples of rescues to guide your plan. Use at least two details from the link below.

Examples of real life rescues:

• 1972 plane crash into the Andes
• Amelia Earhart a castaway? 
• 10 castaway stories

In your journal:

1. Detail your rescue plan and all the necessary steps that need to be taken for it to work. Remember, your group needs to explain the points of the plan, where you get your supplies, how long does it take to complete it, and any other information you can include.                                                                                                                                           

Evaluation 75 points total

Conclusion

Now that you have completed this web quest, you should have a better understanding of what Jack, Ralph, Piggy and the other boys had to go through while living on their island. You have chosen a government, a leader, national symbols, human rights and the accompanying laws. Each of these decisions helped you form your own, unique society. Why was the society necessary? If we go by what happened in the Lord of the Flies, society is in place to keep peace when just a few bad people, like Roger and Jack, would have all order demolished and let savagery rule over us. As Golding was trying to emphasize, there is evil in every man, but you can choose to act against it. 

Resources

• https://sites.google.com/site/jimjohnsonwebquest/

• http://www.whatisdemocracy.net/

• http://www.democracy-building.info/definition-democracy.html

• http://www.politicalsystems.com/dictatorship.html

• http://www.preservearticles.com/201106248570/what-is-the-difference-between-democracy-and-dictatorship.html

• http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/national-symbols.htm#.UHtGR2_A-w1

• http://www.whereincity.com/india/great-indians/national-symbols/

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/22/newsid_3717000/3717502.stm

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/amelia-earhart-search-hawaii-nikumaroro_n_1648117.html

• http://listverse.com/2008/10/06/10-incredible-real-life-castaway-tales/