A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 1

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1 A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 1 ALIEN ENCOUNTER- being a stranger in a strange land This particular evening is designed for use near the start of an academic year and is aimed largely at new international students. It is also designed to be followed by the evening entitled Culture Shock. ICE-BREAKER: Please note that this section is just an ice-breaker and shouldn t last more than 20 minutes. If people don t know each other ask everyone in the group to introduce themselves, giving their name and nationality and maybe what they re studying. OR use an ice-breaker question: if you were stranded all alone on a deserted island what one luxury would you choose to take with you? You may need to be prepared to go first. OR use a big group ice-breaker such as Find someone who EXERCISE 1: Use either the NASA EXERCISE or DESERT SURVIVAL or LOST AT SEA (see instructions for each of these exercises below) A. NASA EXERCISE Divide your table in to smaller groups of just 2 or 3 people (including helpers). Give each group a copy of the INSTRUCTION sheet for the NASA exercise Ensure that they know they can ask about any new words and ensure that they understand what they have to do Give them minutes to decide in their groups the order of importance of the items salvaged from the spacecraft. Join groups together and discuss the responses - encourage interaction. DO NOT initially offer your own thoughts and do NOT dominate the discussion yourself!!! As a group you should try to come up with a definitive answer to the challenge ask one student to scribe. Finally, look together at the actual NASA answers and see how close you were. B. DESERT SURVIVAL Hand out the DESERT SURVIVAL instruction sheet. Divide your table in to smaller groups of just 2 or 3 people (including helpers). Encourage students to read through the survival scenario presented - some help may be needed with vocabulary. In smaller groups students should discuss the scenario (approx 10 minutes). Join together as a whole table and try to agree on which seven items would be of greatest value. There is no definitive answer for this exercise but one proposed solution might be as follows: Water (for obvious reasons!) Pocket mirror (to signal by day) Torch (to signal by night) Parachute (could be used for shelter & also a sign for a rescue plane) Sunglasses (to guard against blindness) Overcoats (to keep warm at night) Plastic Poncho (could be used to create more water through condensation)

2 A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 2 C. LOST AT SEA Handout a LOST AT SEA instruction sheet and a ranking sheet (one per person). Allow 10 minutes for people to read through the exercise scenario and to make their own initial ranking of the importance of each item salvaged. Please note that some people may need new vocabulary explained. Invite the group to come together to discuss their individual thoughts and ideas. Where people disagree on the importance of a particular items encourage them to give reasons for their ranking. Encourage healthy debate! Record the team rankings in the second column. Allow approx 20 minutes for this section. Once the team have reached their final decision present them with the expert coastguard analysis sheet. For each item, they should mark the number of points difference between their score and the expert analysis (disregard plus or minus, this isn t important). The lower the total, the better chance of survival you have!!! The higher the total, well EXERCISE 2: SURVIVAL IN THE UK The whole purpose of the initial survival exercise is to get students thinking about survival in general. These exercises describe a situation in which most of us will never find ourselves. BUT we want to go on to discuss how, as an international student and therefore a stranger in a strange land, what are some of the things students might need in order to not just simply survive but thrive, enjoy & benefit from their time here? Encourage students to think not only of practicalities, such as internet, money, etc but also of issues of character, such as being open-minded, having a sense of humour, etc. Discussion might be aided by asking questions like: Is this your first time overseas? Is this your first time in the UK? How long have you been here? What have you found different or difficult to cope with? What do you miss most from home? How can things like TABLEtalk, etc help them? PLEASE try not to get involved in too much discussion about cultural differences and culture shock as this is our subject for next week.

3 A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 3 A. NASA INSTRUCTION SHEET You are in a space crew originally scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. Due to mechanical difficulties, however, your ship was forced to land at a spot some 200 miles (300 kms) from the rendezvous point. During re-entry and landing, much of the equipment on board was damaged and, since survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the trip. Below is a list of the 15 items left intact and undamaged after landing. Your task is to rank them in terms of their importance in enabling your crew to reach the rendezvous point. Place a number 1 by the most important item, number 2 by the second most important, and so on, through to number 15 for the least important. Box of matches Food concentrate 50 feet of nylon rope Parachute silk Portable heating unit Two.45 calibre pistols Magnetic compass Life raft Signal flares 5 gallons of water Stellar map (of the moon s constellation) First Aid kit containing injection needles Solar-powered FM receiver/transmitter Two 100lb tanks of oxygen One case of dehydrated milk

4 A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 4 NASA EXERCISE - ANSWER KEY 1. Two 100lb tanks of oxygen (there s no air on the moon) 2. 5 gallons of water (you can t live long without this) 3. Stellar map (needed for navigation) 4. Food concentrate (though you can live for quite a while without this) 5. Solar-powered FM receiver (for communication) feet of nylon rope (for travel over rough ground) 7. First Aid kit with injection needles(first Aid might be needed but needles are useless) 8. Parachute silk (to help carry things) 9. Life raft (some value for shelter or for carrying things) 10. Signal flares (distress call when line of sight possible) 11. Two.45 calibre pistols (some use for propulsion) 12. One case of dehydrated milk (needs water to be of use) 13. Portable heating unit (lighted side of the moon is hot) 14. Magnetic compass (moon s magnetic field is different from earth s) 15. Box of matches (no oxygen)

5 A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 5 B. DESERT SURVIVAL It is about 10am on a July morning, and your group have just crashed in a small aeroplane in the Sonora desert in Northern Mexico. The pilot & co-pilot are both dead and the aeroplane is a burnt-out shell. One of your group is injured. The aeroplane has no radio, and you think you were about 100 kms (60 miles) off course when you crashed. Just before the crash the pilot told you that you were 120 kms (72 miles) south of a small town. From experience you know that day-time temperatures can reach 43C (110F) and nighttime temperatures drop to freezing. All of you are dressed in summer clothing. The area is flat and arid (dry) as far as the eye can see. The following is a list of items that were rescued from the plane in good condition which SIX do you think are the most important to assist your survival: Torch with four batteries Hunting knife Pilot s chart of the area Large plastic poncho One red & white parachute Compass Bottle of 1000 salt tablets Two bottles of vodka Two litres of water per person One overcoat per person One pair of sunglasses per person One pocket mirror Book Edible Desert Animals Loaded pistol Instrument to measure blood pressure parachute poncho compass pistol

6 A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 6 C. LOST AT SEA You have hired a yacht with several friends, for the holiday trip of a lifetime across the Atlantic Ocean. Because none of you have much previous sailing experience, you have hired an experienced captain and a crew of two. Unfortunately in middle of the Atlantic a fierce fire breaks out in the ship s galley (kitchen) and the skipper and crew have died whilst trying to fight the blaze. Much of the yacht is destroyed and is slowly sinking. Your location is unclear because vital navigational and radio equipment have been damaged in the fire. Your best estimate is that you are many hundreds of miles from the nearest land. You and your friends have managed to save 15 items, undamaged and intact after the fire. In addition, you have salvaged a rubber life craft and a box of matches. Your task is to rank the 15 items in terms of their importance for you, as you wait to be rescued. Place and number 1 by the most important item, number 2 by the second and so on through to number 15 for the least important.

7 A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 7 LOST AT SEA ranking chart Personal Ranking Personal Score: Salvaged Item A Sextant (tool used to navigate) A shaving mirror A quantity of mosquito netting A 25 litre container of water A case of army rations Maps of the Atlantic Ocean A floating cushion seat A 10 litre can of oil/petrol mixture A small transistor radio 20 square feet of plastic sheeting A can of shark repellent A bottle of 160% proof rum 15ft nylon rope 2 boxes of chocolate bars A fishing kit Team Ranking Team Score:

8 A free resource from Friends International produced by Lynne Martin 8 LOST AT SEA expert coastguard analysis Salvaged Item Coastguard Coastguard Reasoning Ranking A Sextant (tool used 15 Useless without relevant tables and a chronometer to navigate) A shaving mirror 1 Critical for signalling A quantity of mosquito netting 14 There are no mosquitos mid-atlantic and netting has no other purpose A 25 litre container 3 Vital to restore fluids lost through perspiration of water A case of army 4 This is your basic food intake rations Maps of the Pacific 13 Worthless without navigational equipment Ocean A floating cushion seat 9 Fairly useless as a life preserver if someone fell overboard A 10 litre can of oil/petrol mixture 2 Critical for signalling mixture would float on the water and could be ignited using the matches A small transistor 12 You would be out of range of any radio station radio 20 square feet of plastic sheeting 5 Can be used to collect rain water or as shelter from the wind and the waves A can of shark 10 Hmmmmm!!! repellent A bottle of 160% proof rum 11 Could be used as a means of antiseptic for any injuries, otherwise of little value as it would only cause dehydration. 15ft nylon rope 8 Could be used to lash people or equipment together to prevent it being washed overboard 2 boxes of 6 Your reserve food supply chocolate bars A fishing kit 7 Ranked lower than the chocolate as there is no guarantee you will actually catch any fish.