In one of Imagine’s most loved activity inventions, Civilisation Game, the students are challenged to build up their own civilisation from scratch in a  forest setting just outside of Shanghai.

The group will first be given a brief training course in various useful skills for their challenges, such as how to use tools safely, build a shelter, build a raft, make a fire and understand the natural elements, plants, and wildlife around them.

After this training, in an empty forest space, with limited resources unequally distributed between groups, the Civilisation Game will begin.

After a few days, they will have built their own bamboo structures, found ways to cook food, and organised themselves into effective teams with systems of governance, laws, culture, history, art, music, fashion, security, transport, plumbing, agriculture, entertainment and other features of a modern society. Or simply slipped into a chaotic anarchy. Time to see how well you really know your students! 

They may even trade and negotiate with other teams, for mutual prosperity across the civilisations. Or just begin an arms race or start a trade war. 

There’s no right and wrong in this game. It is a chance to learn through experience in a simulation of the world at large. We conclude with a discussion of which systems and approaches were most effective, what they would do differently next time, and what else they have learned along the way.