Sixth Graders Experience Refugee Simulation

On April 1, sixth graders participated in their annual refugee simulation as part of a lesson to raise awareness of global issues after reading A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. The simulation is designed to help students develop a deeper understanding of the experiences faced by refugees around the world, while also reinforcing a central theme of the sixth grade program: the importance of empathy and compassion for others. 

“This experience helped build empathy in many ways,” said Brynn McCord ’32. “It helped me to learn more and almost experience what they had to go through to build empathy as well as understand the difficulties that refugees have to experience.”

The simulation is a hands-on, interactive event where students work in teams, or families, to navigate various challenges and problems refugees might face, including learning how little space there is in a refugee camp, filling out forms in other languages and going through immigration approval. At the end of the activity, the students debrief and reflect on and discuss the experience and its impact. The refugee simulation, which is in its fourth year and based on the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was created and designed by Middle School Teachers Shari Lincoln and Tara Westbrook. To learn more about the background of the simulation, watch this video.