The Zombie Project: Having fun while teaching resource use, emergency management, and human geography.

Keywords: pedagogy, APHG, Covid
Session Type: Paper Session

Abstract

During this presentation we will explain a capstone project based learning activity and provide access to the (adaptable) materials required to incorporate The Zombie Project into your own courses. The activity was originally designed pre-Covid, but could easily be framed by current events. The premise of the project is that there has been a major global pandemic and because of the vast number of casualties the global supply chains have been broken. In this simulation-type group activity we begin with a fatal virus that is highly contagious and deadly. The disease was nicknamed the "Zombie Disease," because those who are infected lose the ability to feel emotions and end up preying upon their neighbors, family and strangers, and thus spreading the infection. So, the students are faced with the question, How will geography help them survive a full-fledged worldwide pandemic of the Zombie Disease? In a college setting the project lasts two weeks, involves the use of ArcGIS online to ‘track bites,’ Google Earth to determine likely safe transit routes and good settlement site, as well as the Center for Disease Control’s official website to determine the necessary supplies to acquire. In an APHuG classroom this would be a fun activity to do in the interim time between the AP exam and the end of the school year.