The Chocolate Game

** Goal: detect competitive behaviour; differences between equal rights and equal opportunities, develop strategies to achieve own and collective goals  ** Duration: 45 minutes  ** Required material: paper for cards for fields, a big room, dice, chocolate 
**Detailed instructions can be found here

Much like in a game of dice, arrange a snake-shaped course along the floor (with the cards numbered consecutively). The start is at 0 and the last card is the final target.   A big bar of chocolate is placed on the last card and on fields 10 and 20, smaller bars of chocolate are placed as subgoals. The aim of the game is to use the dice to be the first to the final target and win the chocolate.  

Split the participants into smaller groups (3-6 groups with up to a maximum of 5 people). Not all the groups start at 0 – after all, in real life, not everyone starts with the same conditions. The starting positions (for example, fields 2, 4, 6 or 8) are therefore drawn by lot or are divided up through a creative competition.  

The game management determines who starts (the strongest or the weakest). The group that reaches the first subgoal can determine how the game continues by creating a new rule. The same thing happens with the second subgoal. The game management can ensure that the participants are creative and possibly also unfair with regard to the new rules. 

After completing the game, the following should be evaluated:

• How were decisions made in the group? 
• How solidary did the participants behave? 
• Who prevailed and why? 
• What happened with the prize (the chocolate)? 
• How were the rules and the distributions of starting positions perceived?  
• What parallels can be drawn to reality? (do unfair rules come up here)? 

Source: Baustein für nicht-rassistische Bildungsarbeit des DGB-Bildungswerks Thüringen e.V.

Translation: Fred Taucher

Read original article in German.