This role-play game is intended to give students a hands-on insight into the experiences of the different groups in the ‘chocolate production chain’ and will generate much activity, discussion and debate! Please note that this game simplifies the chocolate production chain for practical purposes; it is however a very valuable learning experience, and will give your students a great deal to think about and discuss very quickly!
Warning! This is a noisy game!
Your students will need space to form 10 groups and to move between them. You may like to clear most of the desks to the edge of the room, leaving just a semi-circle of chairs with one desk per group. Students must be able to get up and move around the room easily.
Divide the class into the following sized groups (for a class of 27–34 students). Some groups are repeats (e.g. Independent cocoa farmers). This is intentional: quite a few groups play the same role as each other.
Below is a list of the groups you will need your class to form:
Group 1 Fairtrade cocoa farmers
Group 2 Independent cocoa farmers
Group 3 Independent cocoa farmers
Group 4 Independent cocoa farmers
Group 5 The Fairtrade Chocolate Company
Group 6 The Big Chocolate Company
Group 7 Supermarket
Group 8 Supermarket
Group 9 The journalist
Group 10 The consumer
Allocate to each the resources listed beneath their group name (see Printout 3C1). Students may not have extra resources: the limitations imposed are supposed to replicate the limitations experienced by farmers/producers in real life!
Print/copy:
Numbers of copies and distribution are indicated on the printout.