53225 conversation moving to a new world

It is the year 2033. The world has been destroyed and only you and 12 other
people are alive. You have a rocket that will take you to a planet similar to Earth
where you must start life again. However, there is only space for you and 5 other
people.
Who will you take?
David.

Ali

Rebecca

David is 52 and is
an expert on
hunting and
farming. He is
very racist and
close-minded and refuses to
live with people who are gay or
are not white.
Jack
Jack is 10. He
likes computer
games,
chocolate and
classical music.
He also likes to pull the legs off
spiders.

Ali is 27, speaks 4
languages and
has just qualified

as a surgeon. He
shot and killed
two people while waiting to
speak to you, because “they
looked at him funny”.
Emma
Emma is 22. She
did 3 years of
nurse training,
but quit because
she became
addicted to heroin. She can get
quite angry when she craves
heroin. She has 150 works of
literature in her bag.
Linda
Linda is 24.
She is an
electronics
expert and a
famous
hacker. She escaped from
prison, where she was
imprisoned for stealing credit
card information from old
people.
Matthew
Matthew is 34
and is an expert
on physics. He

has 320 science
books in his
luggage. When
he arrived at the rocket, he was
in handcuffs with a policeman,
but the policeman was shot
dead for “looking at somebody
funny”. As he died, he screamed
“you must not take this man!
He is very dangerous!”

Rebecca is 29
and is 6
months
pregnant with
twins. She has
no useful
skills. She is married to Paul.

Daisy

Daisy is 37. She
was a lawyer
and had
recently become
a judge when the world ended.
She has depression and cries
frequently, and may be suicidal.

Kim Lee

Kim Lee is 45,
from South Korea,
and was a
professor of
Chemistry at Harvard
University, before going to
prison for burning his ex-wife’s
house down. He can be quite
violent.

Paul

Paul is 32 and a
Special Forces
soldier, who
likes gardening,
painting and
music. He can play 4
instruments and has brought
his guitar. He won’t leave
without his wife Rebecca.
Josh
Josh is 30, and an
aircraft
mechanic with a
PhD in
Engineering. His
boyfriend was recently shot
dead by a man for “looking at
him funny”. He has a gun in his

bag.
Pedro
Pedro is 39 and
is a
professional
nanny and a
qualified
psychologist.
He knows how to hunt and he
speaks 11 languages fluently.
He hates gay people and won’t
travel with them.

Pyramid Discussion

Created by JS Butler, using images from freepik.com. May be distributed, edited and photocopied.


1. Give each student a copy of the sheet and explain to them that they must choose 5 people to take
with them to the new planet, and their reasons why. (If they complain it isn’t possible, explain that
they will be cryogenically frozen for the journey.)
2. Now tell them that the plan has changed, and they must now choose with their partner who they
will take. They must therefore compromise and debate their choices in order to pick a list of 5 people.
Perhaps you could pre-teach phrases on expressing opinion (I think; in my opinion; I reckon;
personally, I believe etc.)
3. Tell the students that yet again, the plan has changed, and each pair must work with another pair to
compromise again on another 5 people to take.
Depending on the class-size, this could then involve a whole class discussion on who deserves to be
saved.
4. As a follow up to this exercise, you can create a scenario in which the students themselves are in a

similar situation – for instance, a boat/hot air balloon that is approaching a desert island but is sinking
due to excess weight. Each student must then give a reason/reasons why they deserve to stay on the
desert island.
After each student has given their reasons, they must vote (perhaps anonymously) on which student
should be left behind. Then the cycle repeats as many times as you want, and each time the students
must give a different reason why they will be useful on the desert island.
However, be cautious: if your students aren’t all friends then the latter activity could lead to students
ganging up on another student, as opposed to it being a light-hearted activity.

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