PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In this project we had the task to make a simulation to show the process a refugee makes on their journey to a better life. We decided to make a simulation because we the students felt like that would be a way for people to actually feel and go through the life of a refugee. With a lot of weeks of planning, we were hoping that people would learn from our simulation how refugees feel on a daily basis. Another goal that we had was that by the end of this project, all of the students would be experts on the Syrian refugee crisis, and we even made a poster that said our goal which was "By the end of this project each one of us will be an expert on the Syrian refugee crisis, to the extent that we could each handle being interviewed about it on the radio, for an hour, like it was no big deal."
THE IDEA OF THE SIMULATION
The original plan was for us to either make a play or an exhibition about the Syrian refugee crisis. It took several weeks to really think on what we wanted to do for the Festival Del Sol. We went on field trips to museums. We did a lot discussing with the whole class about the Pro's & Con's on doing both the play and exhibition. We just wanted to make something that us the students and the parents would enjoy. Then someone came up with the idea of a simulation, which everyone seemed to like the idea. We then started to talk about making a simulation and everyone was exited to do it, so that was it. We decided to make the simulation, because if we would of made an exhibition, people would of just gone in and just looked around. Now for a simulation, people would actually know how refugees feel, and see what they go through on a daily basis.
EVENT SEQUENCE We were able to come up with this event sequence by reading many articles about the refugees going through greece. We had to read articles about what refugees go throught while in greece. Personally somthing that really helped me come up with ideas and learn more about my country was the personal stories of the refugee's journey on being a refugee, and especially when they talk about going through greece. With all of the information from all the articles, we were able to come up with the station layout.
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CHARACTER SHEETWe had to make a character sheet for our character that we were going to be acting in our simulation. I think this really helped me during the simulation, because knowing a lot of facts, and a little bit about the life of your character helps on acting in the simulation. For me it was more comftarable acting in the simulation knowing who I was and just knowing some facts, for example what they like to do on their free time can tell you a lot about their personality which helped me knowing how I should act in the simulation.
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QUALITY HANDOUTI want to share this document with you because I think this is one of the documents that helped me and my group the most. In this document there was a lot of questions we had to answer about what the people who were going through our simualtion (refugees) were going to be doing/seeing while passing through our station (which was greece). We also had to put pictures of the step by step on what the people who were going through our simulation had to be doing, which was great because I felt like that gave me a better vision on how it will actually look like.
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STATION RESERCH DOCUMENT I remember that each one of te people in our group had to research about two topics that had to do with the country that we had (Greece). The two topics that I had to research about were the current conflicts/controversies & health care. I now think that this document was useful because we actually used the information from the health care in Greece. In our simulation there was a part where a doctor was going to be checking the refugees health but they would have to leave because we couldnt afford helping them with all their needs. Which we got that information from this document.
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VISION FOR OUR STATIONThis document was basically to help us figure out how our station will be like, and what the people who were going to go through our station (refugees) were going to be doing/seeing. I feel like the basic things that we were going to have didn't really changed. Te only things that changed were the details, like costume wise and props wise.
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STATION DESIGN DOCUMENTSomething that I'm really proud of, was the detailed description of each scenario. I think that all the scenarios were really specific with a lot of detailed. Also it looked like we took the time to do it, not just in a rush. I'm really happy that most of the people in my group finished everything they were supposed to on time. felt like if someone couldnt do one of the things, another person in our group would step in, which was something nice to do.
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PLAYTEST ONE |
PLAYTEST TWO |
PLAYTEST THREE |
In playtest one, my group which was greece, still did not know what we were going to be doing nor what the people going through our station were going to be doing. I felt like we were not comunicating so well in the first weeks & we were still kind of confused on what we were supposed to be doing.
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I felt like this playtest was way better than the first one. We were now comuniation a lot more than before, and we now knew our role for our station. We knew what was going to happen when they first got to our station and kind o the rest (we weren't 100% sure)
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In this playtest, I felt more confident about it, because we knew what we were doing and we knew what the people in our station were going to be going through. We knew what the people were going to be doing fro beggining to end. The only thing left was to figure out the props and the costumes.
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SINGLE-STATION & FINAL PLAYTESTSINGLE-STATION PLAYTEST:
I actually thought that it was pretty cool to be able to go through the simulation, because it was a way for us to feel how the people that were going to go through our simulationwill feel like. While going through the simulation, I felt like it made me think of the things that needed to be strong in able to make the simulation feel real. FINAL PLAYTEST: I was really proud of the final playest because everything went smoothly, the only thing was that we forgot to bring some of our props but it wasn't a big deal. We were not 100% into our chaacter but we knew we would be 100% in character on that day of the festival. |
This was one of the very first play tests.
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ESSAY QUIZI think people should actually go through a simulation, because knowing what a refugee goes through on a daily basis is so important. I now people would think that they know what they are going through because they have watched a video or two about refugees, but i think it would be a better experience to actually feel and do what a refuee does. To actually live it, not just watch it and forget about it ten minutes later.
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REAL SIMULATION
I actually really enjoed the simulations. During the simulation I saw some parents who were really into their character which was awesome because I didn't think they would do that. I remember one of the parents who were going through the simulation really wanted to get back to his family that he left behind in SYria ( that's what it said in their charecter sheet) and the only way out of UNHCR was to go through Serbia but he did NOT wanted to go to Serbia. He wanted to go to Turkey, but eventually Ari (smuggler) convinced him to go to Serbia. Something that I did once or twice was that we would separate the families in half, so thta they could feel what the refugees feel when they have to leave their kids behind (or the other way around).