Digital Play

By grahamstanley 　http://digitalplay.info/blog/2009/11/tube-crisis/

Tube Crisis is a short point-and-click puzzle game that is good for stimulating conversation with (upper-intermediate + ) learners if you are lucky enough to teach in a connected classroom (i.e. one equipped with a computer and data projector and/or interactive whiteboard)

Language: descriptions of people, relative clauses and the difference between first and second conditionals. This game is also a very rich source of vocabulary that you can either pre-teach the learners or deal with as you go along.

Preparing to Play

1) Ask the learners if they like travelling by public transport – what disadvantages are there?

2) Write this on the board:

What would you do if you found yourself crammed into a particularly busy tube train carriage?

Next, show the learners the following image (the easiest way is to start the game)

Ask them to describe the people and identify the potential problems they might cause

Game Plan:

The carriage is too busy – it would be better if someone left. But who would you like to get rid of first? And why? The options are:

• The man blowing the party blower who is carrying the ghetto blaster
• The bald-headed man who has the sweaty armpits
• The backpacker who’s carrying the heavy rucksack
• The small child who is holding the fizzy drink
• The tall man in the suit with the red nose who’s got a cold
• The plump ginger-haired man who’s carrying lots of food
• The goth with the red sun-glasses who has a pigeon on his head

Once the learners have given their ideas, ask them to guess the answer to the following questions

• What would happen if I hit the balloon? (correct answer: it would bounce off the wall)
• What would happen if I nudge the backpacker?

After their ideas for each action, carry it out and then check with them what they saw. Now, once they know what happens, ask the students to confirm what they have seen? (So, what happened when I nudged the backpacker?)

• What’s in the backpacker’s trouser pocket? (bubble gum)
  
• What would happen if I gave some to the little boy?
• What would happen if I gave more to the boy?
  

Now, which person is bothering me the most? (The man eating the crisps)

And what happened when the boy left? (a little dog came in)

• What would happen if I gave the dog one of the man’s crisps? (it would want more)
• What would happen if I continue feeding the dog? (It would try to eat them all and the man with the crisps would have to leave)

Now who’s the problem? (the bald man with the sweaty armpits)

And what happened when the door opened? (a spider came in)

• What should I do now? Why? (Push the spider. Because the bald man is afraid of spiders)
• What would happen if I hit the balloon now?

What happened when the bald man left screaming from the carriage? Who came in? ( A nun, a strange man wearing a hat and a bat) What is sticking out of the man’s hat and jacket? (twigs)

• What would happen if the pigeon took the twigs? (it would start to build a nest)
• What’s going to happen when the bird finishes building a nest?

What happened when the pigeon finished building a nest? What’s left of the pigeon? (a feather)

Who’s the most irritating person in the carriage now? Why?

• What would happen if I tickled the man’s nose with a feather?

Now, what’s different?

• What has the man in the hat got in his pocket? (a cricket bat)
• What would happen if the goth had a music cassette?
• What would happen if I hit the bat while the goth was singing?
• What would happen if I hit the ghetto blaster out of the carriage at the next station?

Now who’s the most annoying person?

• What would happen if the two men really saw each other? (tug on the trouser pocket of the man with the cold to find out)

Now, who’s the last person I have to deal with? (a health fanatic)

What’s that on the floor of the carriage? (a lunchbox)

• What would happen if the health fanatic were given some sandwiches?

THE END

Follow-up

After the game has finished, restart it and ask the learners to remember and write as many of the questions you asked them earlier, but to write them using the first conditional (e.g. What happens if I hit the balloon? etc.) – you can tell them that you have to use the first conditional now because they know the answers and this is what happens every time you do this (= now there’s no hypothesis).

Once they have finished, you can get them to ask their partner and see how many of them they can answer. Finally, check the answers by going through the game again.

Extension / Homework

Ask them to write what happened in the game as a narrative: Last Thursday I was on my way home and decided to take the Tube…

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