The goals of session 1 are to introduce the philosophy and responsibility of the Peace Games program and to allow students to develop a language for defining and examining conflict in its different levels. Conflicts examined range from global and national issues to local and personal ones. Based on the observation that we learn more effectively by doing and creating than by listening and studying, we will be using creative group learning to teach the concept of cooperative problem solving. This activity examines definitions of conflict supplied by the students during a group discussion. The activity encourages students to draw upon examples from their own experiences as well as local and national current events.
Students then discuss their own personal views on the event and suggest possible solutions.
In this activity, students discuss the positive and negative aspects of conflict. For instance, a conflict is a good way to externalize viewpoints, or to make your opinion known. What is tricky, though is to identify when and how conflicts get out of hand.