Dragonfly Pond

Understanding the importance of civics and collaboration among peers is a task that not many college students get to experience. When given the assignment to create Dragonfly Pong with my classmates, it seemed like it would be a fairly simple thing to do. Our town had all of these great ideas to build businesses and organizations that seemed important to a city; but what we did not realize was that another city had already started building on the land.

When a town is beginning to develop, there are many opinions that want to be heard so that all ideas are discussed. The problem is when not all of the city's members are present at the same place during the same time. This causes discussions to occur that the other members of the town are not a part of, and consequently, decisions are made that are not agreed upon by all townspeople. 

The importance of understanding civics and collaborating prevents people from becoming angry because decisions are made without them. For the other section of the social studies class, they did not realize the lack of communication occurring and began making decisions on the town without consulting all members. This created a division among the people.

Through this Dragonfly Pond experience, I have learned how important it is to make decisions as a whole in order to keep the entire town happy. In this case, it became evident that the first group of people to start building on Dragonfly Pond were not going to budge from their ways and allow a rebuilding of the city. Due to this, the other group had to destroy part of the waterways in order to build more land so that they could be a part of the town. This created more work than necessary, and continued to keep the town divided.

Pictured here is Dragonfly Pond. The grouping of houses and businesses to the far left is the first set of construction done by the other group. The houses and buildings in the middle and the right side are all part of the new development done by the second group.

Here are some other ways to build a classroom community with your upper elementary students: BlairTurner.com