A Sample Simulation
The Holiday Card Factory

The following is an example of a simulation, an activity that recreates-although somewhat imperfectly-a piece of reality in the classroom. This simulation was designed by a teacher who wanted to teach elements of mass production under nineteenth-century factory conditions.

Synopsis:
The class will be organized into production areas (teams) to produce holiday greeting cards. In this instance the cards will be for Valentine's Day, but other holidays will work equally well. To re-create 19th Century working conditions, the room should be darkened somewhat and students asked to stand at their work stations (desks) throughout the activity. Talking unrelated to work should not be permitted. Understand that socializing on company time is a basis for firing an employee.

Description of Product:
The greeting card has a white heart, pierced by a pink arrow, that is placed on a red circle. This subassembly is then mounted on a white paper doily. The completed card should resemble the one below.



Organization
Each phase of the card-making process is divided into drawing, cutting, and inspecting. For example, the heart department has teams of heart drawers and heart cutters and a heart inspector.

For a class of twenty-five students, you should have the following roles:

Heart Department	Circle Department
3 heart drawers	3 circle drawers
2 heart cutters	2 circle cutters
1 heart inspector	1 circle inspector
Slit Department (for making the hole where the arrow pierces the heart)	Arrow Department
1 slit drawer	3 arrow drawers
1 slit cutter	2 arrow cutters
1 slit inspector	1 arrow inspector
Assembly Department
3 assemblers
1 final inspector

For fewer than twenty-five students, drop some inspectors. For more than twenty- five, add them to the drawers in any department.

Procedure
Cluster the desks into five "departments." Make signs identifying each department (heart department, etc.) in advance. Each student should also make a small sign identifying his or her particular task (e.g., circle cutter). The inspectors are responsible for maintaining quality control and taking the finished products to the assembly area.

Provide the following materials and instructions to the appropriate department.


Heart Department

• Heart drawers

Materials: plain white paper (8 ½ x 11), pens, rulers

Instructions: "Draw the largest heart you can that will fit into an 8-inch square."

• Heart cutters

Materials: scissors

Instructions: "Cut the heart as accurately as you can."

• Heart inspectors

Materials: a sample heart (made ahead of time)

Instructions: "Be sure that your hearts closely resemble the sample before taking them to the slit department. If anything is wrong with a heart, give it back to the heart drawers or cutters."

Slit Department

• Slit drawers

Materials: ruler and pencil

Instructions: "Your job is to locate the 1-inch slit where the arrow will pierce the heart. Your inspector has a sample heart to show exactly where the slit should be located."

• Slit cutters

Materials: scissors

Instructions: "Your job is to cut the 1-inch slit where the arrow will pierce the heart. Cut as accurately and neatly as you can."

• Slit inspector

Materials: sample heart with slit

Instructions: "Be sure that your hearts closely resemble the sample before taking them to the assembly area. If anything is wrong, return them to the slit drawers or the slit cutters."


Circle Department

• Circle drawers

Materials: red paper, pencils or pens, compasses

Instructions: "Your job is to draw an 8-inch circle on the red paper. It must be exactly 8 inches in diameter. The circle inspector has a sample you can see."

• Circle cutters

Materials: scissors

Instructions: "Your job is to cut the 8-inch circle from the red paper. Work as neatly and accurately as you can."

• Circle inspector

Materials: sample red circle

Instructions: "Be sure that your finished circles resemble the sample before taking them to the assembly area. If anything is wrong, return them to the circle drawers or the circle cutters."


Arrow Department

• Arrow drawers

Materials: pink paper (8 ½ x 11), rulers, and pencils

Instructions: "Your job is to draw a 7-inch-long pink arrow. Your inspector has a sample you can follow. You should get at least four arrows from each sheet of paper."

• Arrow cutters

Materials: scissors

Instructions: "Your job is to cut the 7-inch pink arrows. Work as neatly and as accurately as you can."

• Arrow inspectors

Materials: sample arrow

Instructions: " Be sure that your finished arrows resemble the sample before taking them to the assembly area. If anything is wrong, return the arrows to the arrow drawers or the arrow cutters."


Assembly Department

• Assemblers

Materials: 9- or 10-inch white paper doilies, paste, fast-drying glue, or rubber cement

Instructions: "Your job is to insert the arrow through the slits in the heart and then glue the heart onto the red circle. The heart and the circle should then be glued onto the doily. Your inspector has a sample you can follow."

• Final inspector

Materials: sample completed heart

Instructions: "Your job is to be sure that each finished card resembles the sample. If it does, place it in a pile labeled 'finished'; if not, place it in a pile labeled 'rejects.' "


Remind the students that work is to be done quickly and accurately. Time is money! Also, only the inspectors can leave their stations. Wages? One candy heart for every ten minutes of cooperation and work.

Do not stop the activity until students are visibly bored with what they are doing (which, unfortunately, may take longer than you might anticipate).

In the debriefing, consider some of the following questions:

1. How did you like your job?
2. How would you describe what we have done?
3. How would you go about improving conditions in this factory? What would you change?
4. What are some different ways we could produce greeting cards like these?
5. If you were responsible for the workers on an assembly line, what problems do you think you might have?

Variation
A useful variation is to have one class (or half the class) use the preceding approach while another class (or the other half of the class) uses a cottage-industry approach. In the latter approach, each student constructs the valentine by completing all different tasks-there is no division of labor.