Batch 3 - Class 216 - Parable of the Polygons

• Try and practice up to a 3 3 3 juggling siteswap!

• This is a story about how small choices can make a big difference
• There are squares and triangles, which live in a neighborhood. They all want to stay together, but they also want some of their own kind around. So they move if they have less than 1/3 neighbors like themselves

• Do kids think this is a fair choice? What kind of an outcome do they think this will create?
• Now create a random board, and get the class to play collectively. Each student takes an unhappy polygon and moves it to a random new place. Example board as under

• What happens? Kids will notice that the neighborhood gets segregated. i.e. the triangles are bunched up together, and the squares are bunched up together.
• Aside: Can kids define a metric for segregation? There is no single answer, but a simple metric would help.
• Show the first simulation on ncase site a few times for kids to understand whats going on. 
• Ask kids to comment on this phenomenon. Why is it happening? Is the choice that each polygon is making unfair? Where might we see this kind of a phenomenon in real life?
• What will happen if polygons had lesser bias (<1/3), or more (>1/3)? Use next simulation on ncase site. What would happen if the whole area was very heavily crowded or less? How does this translate into real life?
• Suppose we started with this bias, but over time people figured out that they wanted to be more assimilated. So they reduce the bias to 15%. What will happen now?
• Let students confirm their belief
• Show the next simulation on ncase
• Nothing happens! Why? 
• In a society where bias exists, its not enough to remove bias at a later stage.
• What can we do then? We can try out reverse bias.
• Now the polygons say that they will also move if 90% or more of their neighbors are like them. Pretty high threshold? What do you expect to see?
• Let kids experiment - Note that one starts with a segregated neighborhood
• Play the simulation on ncase to illustrate. Play around with the degree of initial segregation and the extent to which polygons want to mix up after that.
• Note that some situations may never get stable. Why?
• How does this translate to real life? What kind of steps translate to "active mixing up" - in the school? in society? in jobs?
• Interesting aside: A computer simulation on effect of gender bias in organizations found out, in a particular set up of simulation, that as low as 5% gender bias/ variance, can lead to only 29% of the top levels of the company being staffed by women.
• What other elements do you think can affect the outcome?
• We discussed the empty spaces earlier. Try it on a simulator
• What if there were very few triangles or very few squares? Would that lead to more segregation?
• Learnings
• Small individual bias can lead to large collective bias
• The past haunts the present
• Demand diversity near you
• Ask kids to explore other dimensions of segregation and what might affect it.

• Research effects of small biases leading to large difference in outcomes in different areas. Research initiatives that are underway to correct those outcomes.