CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Imagine you are a leader in the fishing industry. You must balance competing against others and making a living in a tough industry while limiting your total catch in order to sustain the fishery for future generations. Your decisions affect your company’s bottom line and the health of fish stocks and ocean ecosystems. Can you earn a profitable living without decimating fish stocks?
Now, teachers and students can explore this scenario in Simplified Chinese through Fishbanks, an interactive management simulation, which, along with its companion teaching materials, are available online at no cost through MIT Sloan’s LearningEdge website. This virtual game may be played by individuals or in teams, and in a single session or over a semester.
Fishbanks was created by Dennis Meadows, a former MIT Sloan professor. The web-based version was adapted from Meadows's classic game by MIT Sloan Professor John Sterman to instruct Sloan students about the challenges of sustainably managing common pool resources.
“Making Fishbanks available in Simplified Chinese is important because China is a prominent fishing nation strongly affected by a decline in the world’s fisheries,” says Sterman. “Its lessons apply to a wide range of renewable resources as well.”
Fishbanks offers video user guides, online instructions, teaching notes, and slides. In post-game debriefings, users explore examples of successful resource management and the economic, political and social policies needed to implement them.
Sterman, who has been developing simulations since the 1980s, feels they make more of an impact than simply listening to lectures or engaging in case study discussions.
Fishbanks has also been translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Besides Fishbanks, a variety of English-language simulations are available through LearningEdge.
MIT Sloan, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, is one of the world's leading academic sources of innovation in management theory and practice. With students from more than 60 countries, it develops effective, innovative, and principled leaders who advance the global economy.
To access Fishbanks in Simplified Chinese, visit: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/simulations/fishbanks-chinese/Pages/default.aspx
For more on English-language simulation games, visit: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/Pages/default.aspx