There is an extensive literature asserting the undisputable educational value of games. Inspired by a popular CBS TV show, this paper presents a Survivor-style game that instructors can implement in any economics course. At first, students play in teams, then individually. This encourages both teamwork and independent learning. We also conduct an experiment to compare a control and a treatment group in terms of course scores and attendance. We find that students who have played Survivor have statistically better performance and better attendance than their peers in the control group. In light of our findings, we recommend incorporating such active-learning activities in economics classes. Integrating fun and engaging components to the “chalk-and-talk” teaching approach adds important intangible benefits.

有大量文献断言游戏具有无可争议的教育价值。受哥伦比亚广播公司热门电视节目的启发，本文提出了一种幸存者式游戏，教师可以在任何经济学课程中实施该游戏。起初，学生们以团队形式进行比赛，然后单独进行比赛。这鼓励团队合作和独立学习。我们还进行了一项实验，以比较对照组和治疗组的课程分数和出勤率。我们发现玩过幸存者的学生在统计上比对照组的同龄人有更好的表现和更高的出勤率。根据我们的研究结果，我们建议将此类主动学习活动纳入经济学课程。将有趣且引人入胜的成分融入到“边写边讲”的教学方法中，可以增加重要的无形效益。