Washington: What would life without oil be like? Whether caused by global crisis, natural
disaster, or disruptions in access and distribution, life without oil is one of
the most important considerations facing man in the 21st Century.
First year students at Unity College will gain intimate
knowledge of what life without oil means in practice. A course taken by all first year students
entitled The Unity Experience, will begin a six week experiential exploration
of life without oil. The programme for the
first year students is entitled SpOILed.
First year students at Unity College will explore what this
would mean for their lives by imagining that it has already come to pass. A course taken by all first year students,
entitled The Unity Experience, will begin a six week alternate reality game in
which students make real changes in their lives in response to this simulated
crisis.
The students who are participating in programme will gather this week in Tozier Gymnasium on the campus of Unity College, 90 Quaker Hill
Road, Unity, to begin their odyssey of learning what life without oil means for
them.
"Too often, sustainability issues that we lecture about
in classrooms seem far away to students," explained Sarah Cunningham,
Assistant Professor. "They can't
engage with the problem because they don't see how they can affect it or how it
affects them. We hope that this game
will make the issue of resource depletion personal and immediate for our
students by relating it to decisions that they make every day."
Cunningham sees the game as a chance to practice resilience
and adaptation in response to crisis, and to learn to work together and plan to
solve problems.
She feels these are the kinds of skills that Unity will
serve Unity students no matter what the world they live in 20 or 50 years from
now is like.