Name___________________

Per _________   Date ______

 

                  Tragedy of the Commons Simulation

Introduction:

The purpose of this simulation is to explore how resources are used and

exploited when they are available to multiple parties. The "tragedy of the

commons" is the situation in which individuals use a common resource for

their own personal gain and degradation of the commons results, leading to a

decrease in yield for both the group and the individual. This simulation

should be written up as a lab report. During the simulation, all data and

notes should be included in your lab notebook.  Be sure to read Hardin's article

from posted on Mr. Redding's web page at www.cvhs.com

 

Materials:

m&m's^TM  Plastic Straws   paper plates

 

Procedure:

Part I:

Divide yourselves into groups of four.   Imagine this scenario:

Each person represents the head of a starving family which requires food (strong

motivation to acquire food).  The only food source for these four families is

a small fishing hole which can accommodate 16 fish.  Fortunately, after each

round of fishing by the four family heads, each remaining fish is able to

spontaneously reproduce and make one new fish (i.e. 4 fish become 8, to a

maximum of 16). Each person is allowed to take as many or few fish as you

want, but if you take only one fish, your family will starve.

 

In this simulation, our pond is a beaker, and our fish are m&m's^TM

Fish are caught using plastic spoons. Each fishing round will last for 1

minute. You should rotate your fishing order every round so that everyone

has a chance to go first. At the end of every round, the number of remaining

kisses will be doubled to simulate reproduction. The simulation will

continue for several rounds.

 

Part II:

This part is exactly like the first, except that in this simulation,

everyone has a private pond in addition to the common pond. The private

ponds can only hold 3 fish although all other rules apply. You may catch as

many fish as you would like from both ponds during each round.

Results:

  1. All data should be recorded in the following tables.

     Part I: Commons pond

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
Starting #
# Taken
# Replaced

 

 

     Part II: Commons pond

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
Starting #
# Taken
# Replaced

 

 

     Part II: Private pond

 

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
Starting #
# Taken
# Replaced

 

  2. Calculate:

 

   a.  The total number of fish caught by each person

   b.  The total amount of fish that could have been taken from the pond over

        the trial if the fish had been managed perfectly.

   c.  Your "management score" = what percent of the total possible amount of

        fish that could be caught by all fishers, were actually caught?

 

 

Questions:

 

             1-what happened to the common resource in the in Part I? Why?

 

             2-did you get different results for the pond in Part II? Why?

 

3 -if you cooperated with other fishers, what was the result of that

             cooperation?

 

            4 -did you use different fishing strategies in the common pond and the

            private pond? Explain.

 

           5 -why does common usage lead to exploitation?

 

           6 -what would be the ideal way to manage the common pond?

 

             7-how does the number of fish received by each fisher compare to

          the maximum possible for each?

 

            8-what is your management score and what are some ways that you

          could use to improve it?

 

Conclusion:

Briefly summarize the results of this simulation, and discuss the

implications of this simulation on the management of common resources in the

environment. What other resource management examples can you think of where this topic is relevant? What would you suggest in these situations?