Course Toolkit

ECO-Balderdash Instructions

This is a game to help participants learn terms in Module 2.

This game works just like the regular Balderdash game (parents maybe familiar with this game).

Each team starts with 5-10 (depending on time available) slips of paper, and writes their "Team Name" on each one.

The leader reads and spells a word out loud.

Each team discusses a definition for the word. If they know the correct definition they write it down on a slip of paper. If they do not know the correct definition, they write a convincing lie (or a funny lie).

The leader gathers the slips of paper for that word, adds a slip of paper with the correct definition, and reads all definitions aloud. (I suggest reading them through once silently, to ensure they are legible, then aloud once for participants to hear them, then again so they can vote on a definition.) Encourage teams to break down any unfamiliar words, just as they broke down Ecological in the first module.

Teams vote for a definition. If they vote for:

• the correct definition: 2 points
• an incorrect definition: 0 points
• their own definition: 0 points

However, any team who writes a definition that is selected by other teams receives 1 point for each team that votes for their definition.

Example:

ABIOTIC

Team 1: small robotic components of the ecosystem
Team 2: biological components of the ecosystem
Team 3: tics that eat biologists Correct Answer: non-biological components of the ecosystem