As everyone was unpacking their new cooking gear and supplies, they noticed Ilika tearing small pieces of paper from a larger sheet, and writing on them.
“I’ve prepared a game that’s all about communication on a ship.” He mixed the pieces of paper and handed one to each student. “This will also introduce the idea of mathematical variables. On the little sheets you are getting, letters are variables. Think of them as little boxes that can hold any number. The goal of this game is to find the number in variable A. The only rule is that you must communicate with words — you may not show your paper to others.”
Ilika fell silent as they looked at their sheets.
Sata grinned. “I have A! A equals B plus C.”
“Huh?” Neti said, looking quite confused.
“We have to find B and C!” Toli said forcefully.
“B is D minus one,” Rini said.
“So who has D?” Miko asked.
“No!” Toli barked. “We should look for C first!”
The game quickly became a shouting match. Ilika stretched out on his bedroll and stayed low in case anyone started throwing things. Toli and Miko both clearly wanted to be leaders, Neti and Kibi tried to be problem solvers, and Mati had her hand up. The rest stayed quiet and frowned at the confusion.
NEBADOR BookTwo: Journey 53
It wasn’t long before the two leaders were competing for the services of the problem solvers, primarily by seeing who could talk the loudest. Mati had given up and joined the observers. As soon as Kibi realized no one could hear her, she closed her mouth and didn’t open it again.
Suddenly everything stopped. Both of the leaders looked frustrated. The rest stared at the ground or gazed at the sky.
“The exact same thing happened the first time I played this game in my own training,” Ilika admitted.
“So . . . you’re not mad at us?” Neti asked with a worried expression.
“Of course not. I just need to teach you how we communicate on a ship.
What you just experienced was the natural, human way of doing things. It only works up to a certain level of complexity, and nine people trying to verbally solve a fragmented math problem is way too complex.”
Everyone nodded agreement or grinned.
“The first method I’ll teach you is called information-driven communication. We use it on a ship when not much is happening, no stress, no emergency. Each person has one or more jobs, and the little papers you are holding represent your jobs. For example, Sata’s job is to use the values of B and C, do an addition, and find A.
“But the important thing is when each person speaks. At the beginning of the game, Sata cannot do her job, she has no information to report, so she keeps her mouth shut. Only one person has something to report. Lay all your papers face up so I can see them.”
“Boro is the only person who can report information. Go ahead, Boro.”
“I is five.”
Buna snickered. “You don’t look like a five!”
Ilika smiled. “Now that Boro has shared his information, someone else can speak.”
“It’s . . .”
“No, Toli, let that person discover it.”
“Oh, it’s me,” Mati said. “H is I plus one, so it’s six.”
Soon they had the idea. Ilika reshuffled the papers and passed them out again.
“I is five,” Kibi said.
“H is six,” Boro reported.
A few minutes later, everyone clapped and Toli smiled with pride when he finally announced the value of A.
“Now compare that to your first try, which included power struggles, hurt feelings, lots of noise, and no answer.”
Kibi smiled. “Information-driven is much nicer.”
“And it works!” Miko announced with pride.
“On a ship,” Ilika said, “knowing when to be silent is just as important as knowing when to speak.”
They all took a well-earned break. Several scouted for wild edibles. Mati brushed Tera, Miko started a fire, and Sata dipped water from the stream into their new cooking pot, hoping there would be something for soup besides salt and dried herbs.
As Ilika soaked up the last of his soup with bread, he smiled. It had been a thin soup — just the spices they carried and a few greens and mushrooms —
but it had provided inspiration.
“Running a ship is sort of like making a soup. There may be a head cook, but he or she has to trust the other helpers to do their jobs. Some of you knew which edible plants to gather, someone built a fire, others collected wood, and someone made the basic broth.
“The same thing is necessary on a ship. It was scary operating my ship all alone on the way here. I was praying every minute that nothing unusual
happened.”
“It’s hard to imagine someone sailing anything bigger than a rowboat all alone!” Miko said with big round eyes.
Ilika laughed. “Well . . . with you guys learning all your lessons quickly, I shouldn’t have to go anywhere alone ever again.”
They all basked in the warm glow of his compliment.
“The other method of communicating on a ship is called need-driven, and is used for critical operations and emergencies. Any crew member, if they need to act or report something right away, and they are missing something, can just say ‘I need . . . whatever,’ and the person who can get it goes to work, without delay, just as if the commander had ordered it.”
Several students nodded slowly. Others were still thinking about it.
“We’ll use the same problem we used earlier.” He reshuffled the papers and passed them out again. “The urgent need is to find A. So someone says
. . .”
“I need B and C,” Rini said quickly.
“Perfect, Rini. No one should speak unless they are working on finding B
or C.”
“I need D,” Kibi said.
“Great. Kibi is calling for more information in order to provide Rini with B.”
“I need F,” Neti said.
The needs and results continued until Rini could finally announce the value of A. Everyone clapped.
“What do you do if two different people ask you for something at the same time?” Sata asked.
“There’s a priority on the ship based on who’s work is most urgent.”
Neti grinned. “I bet the captain always comes first!”
“Nope,” Ilika corrected. “The captain is just a coordinator. The pilot has first priority.”
Neti looked surprised, but others nodded.
As the evening twilight faded, they all got comfortable in their bedrolls.
“I like the sound of the stream better than all the chickens and stuff,” Mati
said.
“No roosters tomorrow morning!” Miko said happily. “We can sleep longer!”
As they gazed up at the stars, Ilika talked about asteroids, comets, and other minor members of the solar system. Rini pointed to a shooting star, and was surprised to learn it wasn’t a star at all, just a little rock burning up while passing through the air.
Ilika quit talking when he realized half his students were already asleep.
Deep Learning Notes
The roles that naturally emerged, when the students tried to solve the fragmented math problem on their own, tell us things about the students’
personalities. What was the result of having two leaders? What was the response of the introverts (like Mati) when the process became noisy? Notice that Kibi, a very social person, had a non-social reaction when she realized no one could hear her.
The belief that “Man is the measure of all things” is strong in our culture, even among religious people. In light of this, it is sometimes hard to hear that the natural, human way of doing something is not always the best way, and is sometimes completely useless.
Ilika explained that knowing when to be silent on a ship was just as important as knowing when to speak. Which students do you think would have the most trouble being silent?
NEBADOR BookTwo: Journey 57
