GLADSTONE, MO – In early March 2018, one week before Spring Break, Oakhill Day School’s twenty-five fifth-grade students attempted to solve some of the world’s greatest crises.
The students were playing the “World Peace Game,” an interactive simulation in which students take the roles of state cabinets and world organizations in an attempt to solve 52 interconnected crisis events. Developed by John Hunter over 40 years ago, the game allows students to use creativity and experiential learning as a foundation for problem-solving.
Fifth and seventh-grade social studies teacher Trish Stripling brought Oakhill its first World Peace Game. Stripling attended a week-long certification training last summer with Hunter in Charlottesville, Virginia to prepare for this year’s game.
Over the course of gameplay, the students narrowly averted a nuclear war, solved global warming, took in refugees, and experienced the death of a Prime Minister. Each student was able to articulate the personal growth they experienced by week’s end. Many students stated they did not realize how hard achieving world peace would be or how much work would go into preparing for each day of play. “In undergoing training last summer, I studied the game, I saw the game played, but I never facilitated,” said Stripling. “I was nervous in the beginning, but after seeing my students handle the game with such thoughtful purpose, I would be happy to facilitate the World Peace Game at Oakhill for as long as they will let me.”
Oakhill is excited to be the first school in the Kansas City Northland to offer the World Peace Game to its students as part of the social studies curriculum. Highlights from the World Peace Game and interviews with students sharing their thoughts and experiences are available on Oakhill’s YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/ODSvids.