The American Council for Drug Education suggests conceiving situations like: “Your parents don’t approve of you being alone with your friend in his house, yet your best friend has asked you to do just that. What do you do?” or “A stranger asks you to deliver a packet to a nearby house. What do you do?” Divide the class into groups and give a particular situation to a group. Explain that the group has to discuss the situation, think of possible decisions and alternatives and finally decide among themselves which is the best solution. Emphasize the need to ponder over each alternative carefully, weigh its consequences and work as a group to come to a conclusion.
The Learning to Give website suggests preparing a decision making grid wherein the first row would contain: “Select Choices,” the second row “Rate What Is Important,” the third row “Evaluate” and fourth row “Make a Decision.” Ask children to supposedly donate a fixed part of their school money to charity. Give choices of charities like a local soup kitchen, a town’s community center, Christmas gifts for a local orphanage or victims of a natural disaster. Students use the grid to select their choice for charity, rate their choice with logical reasoning, compare the money collected with the necessity of the charity and finally come to a decision as to where they want to donate the money.
Select a story on racial discrimination where a person of one race protests against the atrocities and denials of society. Discuss the protagonist’s dilemma, sense of insecurity, anger and frustration vis-a-vis the attitude of people of another race, their ridicule, the existing laws and the danger of legal action. Note down the different acts of the protagonist to mark his protest and their consequences on his personal life and society. Ask the students to evaluate whether or not the actions were justified and what prompted the protagonist to make his decisions.
Keep red, blue and white colored poker chips in a transparent plastic bag. Ask students to stand in a queue and pick up poker chips from the bag one by one. Students can use only one hand to pick up the chips within 30 seconds. Use a stopwatch to keep time. Halfway through the activity, inform students that the chips have monetary value with the chips of a certain color having the maximum value. At the end of the activity, most students who have picked up chips after the information will have the most chips of this color. Through this activity, proposed by the Florida Department of Education, children learn to understand the importance of collecting information before making decisions.