'It just happened!'

Devised by Steve Williams and Jason Buckley

THIS ACTIVITY asks students to consider some statements and decide whether they could be explained causally or be better categorised as chance happenings. However, other concepts might also be relevant such as 'voluntary', 'predictable', 'deliberate' and so on. Often, our understanding of actions depends on our use of related families of concepts rather than one single concept. Our starting point is a commonly used phrase: 'It just happened!'.

Suggestions for doing the activity
Have the situation descriptions (listed below) available for your students. We have attached a formatted version as 'situation cards' but you can choose any format you like. Also have the 'concept sheet' available. For each of the situations, ask students to decide whether or not they think "It just happened!" would be a reasonable explanation. When they have made their decision, ask them to justify it using the concepts on the concept sheet as prompts. Which of those are relevant to their answers and why? If the students don't know the meanings of the concept words, take some time to explain. Question the students and encourage them to question each other about their decisions, justifications and choices of related concepts. There may be  several alternative interpretations of the each situation. So you might ask students: 'Could you ever know that this interpretation is the best one? How? 

Variations and practicalities
There is plenty of scope for doing the activity in different ways. For example, you might give students one statement at a time or let them see all the statements from the start. You could get students moving to designated positions or standing on a line to indicate their choice, or you could sit them at tables sorting their items using lists and diagrams. You could have them making decisions individually or by trying for a group consensus. You will probably only need about five of the situations for the activity. We've provided more to give you plenty of options.

List of situations

• You are eating dinner on the sofa in front of a football match. Your team scores, and you spill spaghetti Bolognese on the carpet.
• Two of the fish in your aquarium die on the same day.
• You win a race on sports day.
• You come top of the class in a maths exam.
• A bird messes on your school uniform just before your school photograph.
• You are walking along talking to a friend and step in some dog poo.
• You meet someone who looks exactly like you when you are out shopping.
• It’s been sunny all week while you are at school, then at the weekend it rains.
• Your pet rabbit is ill. You pray that she gets better. The next day, she is better.
• One day, you observe a black person being questioned by a police officer. A week later, the same thing happens.
• Most of the children in your class are off sick on the same day.
• You are about to have your school photograph taken when you notice a big spot of ink on your shirt.
• Someone trips over his shoelaces on the way into assembly, and you laugh.
• The weather always seems to be miserable on your birthday.
• You go back to school after the summer holidays and notice that many of the boys have got the same hairstyle.
• You go back to school after the summer holidays and notice that many of the girls have got the same bag. 

List of concepts

• Coincidence
• Cause
• Random
• Voluntary
• Involuntary
• Deliberate
• Unintentional
• Spontaneous
• Controlled
• Uncontrolled
• Predictable
• Unpredictable
• Systematic