Exhibit 5.

1 The Nuclear Bubble: A Crisis Decision Simulation

There has just been a nuclear attack on your country. Because you had forewarning of
this attack, you took the precaution of constructing a geodesic dome made of radiation-
repelling, transparent plastic. You stocked it with enough oxygen, food, water, and
medical supplies to sustain ten people while the radiation levels receded outside the
dome. Your intention is that this ten will then go out and start civilization again.

One day the ten of you look out of the dome to see a group of survivors stumbling across
the scarred landscape toward the dome. As it happens, you have enough supplies to allow
one more person into the dome. The survivors begin banging on the dome, pleading to be
let in. You switch on the radiation-filtering intercom you’ve installed and tell the
survivors that one can be admitted and that they should take turns telling your group why
they should be let in.

The first survivor says he is a family farmer and has been self-sufficiently growing his
own food all his life. He should be admitted because of his agricultural expertise. After
all, he argues, unless the basic demands of life are met and enough food is produced, the
group will die from hunger.

The second survivor says she is a radiation sickness specialist and that since none of the
group have lived through a nuclear attack before no one knows how their bodies will
respond to the lingering levels of radiation that are bound to be left outside. She makes
the point that it doesn’t matter if everyone is a superb farmer – if they are too sick to
move they will all die.

The third survivor says she is a teacher. She argues that the point of living is not mere
survival but the generation and preservation of the culture that creates meaning and
provides richness to existence. She says humans are adaptable enough to pay attention to
survival needs such as finding food, but that it takes specialist training (which she has) to
be able to create an educational system that nourishes the soul and makes life worth
surviving for.

The fourth survivor is a pregnant woman. She says she has the gift of life within her and
pleads for the group to save her unborn child.

The final survivor is a hand-to-hand combat trainer and weapons specialist. He argues
that it highly unlikely that this is the only geodesic dome built to survive the attack and
that once the group leaves the dome to venture out into the world they will face other
groups fighting for the few scarce resources left to support life. If the group does not
know how to defend itself they will inevitably be killed, or left to die, by groups who are
tougher and better trained in fighting and who will hog necessary survival resources for
themselves.

1. How did the group decide its choice? Did members talk this through till they
reached consensus? Did they take a vote? Was the choice split or did a majority
 support the choice? Which assumptions informed your choice of your decision-
making method?
2. What was the strongest argument made that convinced group members to choose
one of the five?
3. What assumptions was this argument based on? What was the best evidence
supplied to support this argument?
4. What were the main viewpoints expressed that challenged your group’s final
choice?
5. If you had more time available, how could you check out whether or not your
choice was a good one?

Bookfield, S.D. Teaching for critical thinking: Tools and techniques to help students
question their assumptions. San Francisco: Jossey Bass 2012