Saturday night, downtown Baltimore, Maryland. A sold-out concert performance
at the Joseph B. Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Unknowingly, the 2,400 members of
the audience become victims of a bioterrorist attack when an aerosol of
plague (Y. pestis) is silently released. Over the course of the
next 36 hours increasing numbers of residents seek medical attention at area
hospitals for cough and fever. By mid-morning on Monday some 300 persons
with these symptoms have received medical care; 17 of which have died. The
State Health Department notifies the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and by
mid-afternoon plague is confirmed first by the state laboratory and
subsequently by the CDC's Washington, D.C. lab.
This scenario is the backdrop for a simulation exercise in national security
decision-making. Much has been written about the value and merits of using
simulations in the classroom. Obvious benefits include reinforcing
theoretical knowledge through active learning, exposing students to
situations and decisions they don't normally face, promoting cooperative
learning from and with peers, and enhancing students' ability for group or
teamwork (Ambrosio 2004). Simulating the Middle
East conflict, Beth Dougherty (2003) found that
simulations can also help develop critical thinking and public speaking
skills, increase understanding of a topic area, force students to examine
multiple perspectives, and generate enthusiasm.
Typically, simulations either mirror real situations, as in the case of
Dougherty's Middle East simulation or Stephen Shellman's (2001) mock German election and coalition building simulation, or
they place students in a fictitious scenario, as in Thomas Ambrosio's
simulation of multiethnic politics where participants assume the role of
delegates at a fictitious country's constitutional convention or in John
Grummel's (2003) decision-making simulation in
which students play the role of city council members deciding on a policy to
alleviate parking shortages.
While all of these exercises may achieve the general learning objectives
mentioned above, they remain classroom exercises without direct connection
to “the real world.” In contrast, “The Meyerhoff Incident” moves beyond the
classroom by involving members of the local community. Students, who assume
roles as first responders, interview community officials and draft role
descriptions in preparation for the exercise based on these interviews.
Ideally, community officials then participate in the simulation and provide
real-time feedback to the students.
The Exercise
Asking students to prepare for and participate in an exercise that takes
them from the classroom into the local community provides educational
benefits above and beyond those offered by traditional classroom
simulations. First, students learn first-hand about the structure and
decision processes of local government and the interplay of local,
state, and federal concerns in those processes. Second, as they schedule
and conduct role interviews, students learn to present themselves
effectively in a professional environment, communicate their ideas and
thoughts beyond the “safe” classroom setting, operate independently and
as members of a team, and discover connections between theoretical
concepts and practical application.
This type of exercise also benefits participating practitioners who are
encouraged to reflect in different ways on their daily routines. Since
emergency response training at the local level focuses largely on
traditional emergencies such as natural disasters, fires, accidents, or
hazardous spills, participation in this exercise could provide a
valuable opportunity for practitioners to apply their professional
expertise in the context of a bioterrorist attack. As I developed and
revised this exercise, I consulted with the town mayor and key members
of the emergency response community to make the scenario and the policy
choices as realistic as possible.
Background
Before discussing the details of the specific exercise, it is useful to
provide some background on the particular educational setting. McDaniel
College, founded as Western Maryland College, is a small (some 1,700
students), private liberal arts college in Westminster, Maryland, about
30 miles northwest of Baltimore and 60 miles north of Washington, D.C.
Of course, it is unlikely that a college town with a population of
approximately 17,000 would itself become the target of a terrorist
attack. However, because many local residents work, shop, and attend
events in the greater Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area, a bioterrorist
attack on that area would have a considerable immediate impact on
Westminster.
The Scenario
The exercise begins on Monday morning following the Saturday evening
attack. The Westminster town mayor is informed about a possible outbreak
of pneumonic plague. Advised by the county health officer that the
county emergency operations plan has been activated, the mayor calls a
meeting of his emergency response team. Students are assigned to play
specific members of this team and are charged with developing an
emergency response plan and with briefing the mayor and community
officials on it. Students assume the following roles:
- Administrator of the County Office of Public Safety
- County Health Officer
- Chair of the County HAZMAT Team
- Bureau Chief of the County Roads Department
- Chief County Engineer for the State Highway Administration
- Coordinator of the County's Red Cross District Disaster Action
Team
- City Police Chief
- City Fire Chief
- City Public Works Director
- City Finance Director
- State Police Barracks Commander
- Community Hospital Safety Manager
- Community Hospital Infection Control Coordinator
The exact list of roles may vary depending on the geographic location and
nature and magnitude of the incident, but roles can be combined
according to area of expertise (e.g., the same player may be responsible
for county roads and state highways or function as hospital safety
manager and infection control coordinator) or class size. For
considerably larger classes, it is also possible to run multiple
exercises with different teams and separate emergency response
briefings. This could even be set up as a friendly competition at the
end of which the attending community officials decide the “winner.”
The exact structure of the exercise and the assignments may also vary
across educational settings and will depend on ease of access to
community officials. If necessary, the scenario can easily be adapted to
a traditional classroom-only format. Students can complete their role
paper assignment through a combination of library and Internet research
and instructors can assume the role of community officials. Instructors
interested in community participation may involve a wide range of
officials. Any member of a local fire or police department should be
able to advise on the functions of the fire marshal or police chief in
an emergency; public affairs officers in local hospitals or area health
or public works departments might be willing to participate in this
exercise as part of their community outreach responsibilities; and many
local politicians or campus safety directors could assume the role of
mayor for the purpose of the emergency response briefings. Inviting
community officials to attend the exercise briefing helps emphasize the
exercise's real-life import and raises students' level of
professionalism.
Preparing for the Exercise
Running an exercise that involves community participation requires
careful preparation and scheduling. Preparation for this exercise should
become the focal point of a dedicated segment of the course. Reading
assignments and classroom discussion might examine the nature of
asymmetric warfare, the history and rise of global terrorism, the
growing threat of biological and chemical weapons, the 9/11 attacks, and
the strategies in America's war on terrorism. Useful non-academic
assignments include the final report of the 9/11 Commission (Strasser 2004) and Richard Preston's (1997) novel, The Cobra Event, which
portrays a lone terrorist's attack on New York City using a genetically
engineered virus. Using a novel or a film such as Outbreak
(1995) very vividly illustrates the possible effects of bioterrorism and
allows students to connect emotionally to the scenario. In addition to
specific reading assignments, preparation for the exercise includes:
The Role Paper
To prepare for their roles, students write their own role
descriptions before they receive any details about the exercise
scenario. This requires them to research the responsibilities of
their role and, if possible, to interview community officials who
either serve in or have professional expertise related to those
roles. The central objective for this assignment is to get students
into the local community to conduct personal interviews and
independent research through library and Internet searches. During
the exercise itself, students are evaluated, in part, on how well
they are able to apply their role functions and responsibilities to
the emergency at hand. Role papers are typically two to three pages
in length and contain basic information on the qualifications for
and responsibilities of each respective role. Students are also
encouraged to include biographical information and any additional
facts they find interesting. Role papers are graded and returned in
advance of the exercise to allow students time to conduct additional
research if necessary to play their roles more effectively.
The Incident Command Presentation
Students attend a guest lecture on the responsibilities of the
various actors responding to an emergency at the local level and on
command structures and potential courses of action. Scheduling this
presentation before students conduct their research and interviews
for the role paper helps them prepare for the exercise and develop
interview questions. Presentations on incident command are a routine
component of emergency response training across the country and
local fire departments should be able to help organize a guest
lecture on this topic.
Reference Materials
About a week before game night, and after completion of the role
paper assignment, students receive the detailed exercise scenario
informing them of the exact nature and magnitude of the attack. In
addition, students receive a set of reference materials including
fact sheets about pneumonic plague and the National Pharmaceutical
Stockpile, maps and demographic information about the incident area,
information about pneumonic plague from the bioterrorism readiness
plan for healthcare facilities, the terrorism incident annex to the
federal response plan, a copy of Presidential Directive 39 detailing
“U.S. Policy on Counterterrorism,” and academic articles on
bioterrorism (Block 2001) and the
pneumonic plague (Inglesby et al.
2000).
Classroom Prep Time
Apart from the classroom discussions on terrorism, it is useful to
reserve class time (ideally 50–60 minutes) after students have
reviewed the exercise scenario and reference materials so they can
coordinate their response efforts, design a unified emergency
response plan, and decide on who will present which part(s) of the
plan and who will act as incident commander and public information
officer. In addition, students should be encouraged to meet in their
teams outside of class to prepare and practice for game night.
Game Night
The exercise is designed in three stages that can be played either
concurrently in one extended three-hour class period or over the course
of two—Stage One during the first, and Stages Two and Three during the
second—or three shorter class periods. For classes that cannot devote
this much time to the exercise, it is possible to simulate only the
initial emergency briefing during one class period. For the full
exercise, instructors should set aside 30–45 minutes for Stage One, 30
minutes each for Stages Two and Three and, depending on the
participation of community officials, 30–45 minutes for the
debriefing.
Stage One
The exercise begins with a mid-afternoon meeting in city hall during
which the students assume their roles and brief the mayor and
community officials (or the instructor) about their emergency
response plan. Students start by introducing themselves in role,
summarize their general emergency responsibilities, and identify who
assumes the roles of incident commander and public information
officer. Next, students can either provide a formal presentation on
their emergency response plan or the mayor (instructor) can direct
specific questions to individual members of the team. In preparation
for Stage One, students are given a memorandum detailing the
following charges for the initial briefing:
- Assess the nature and severity of the emergency as it pertains
to the local community, i.e. what might happen over the next 2–3
days or week;
- Determine which issues are most important to address first and
justify your decision(s);
- Formulate an emergency response strategy and develop concrete
recommendations for addressing the incident and its effects on
the safety of local residents;
- Provide an estimate of the resources needed to accomplish the
task; and
- Outline how each individual player and his or her office will
cooperate with the team in the overall response.
Upon completion of Stage One, the exercise is advanced twice to
Stages Two and Three. Each time students are presented with a
scenario update and given 10 minutes for informal team discussion in
order to coordinate their response to the unfolding events. This
requires students to think on their feet in their respective roles
and enables instructors to more accurately assess their performance.
Similar to Stage One, the mayor (instructor) will again question
students in role to illicit specific recommendations for how to
respond to the advancing crisis.
Stage Two
The exercise is advanced by three hours. Although it is becoming
clear to officials that the state is faced with a severe outbreak of
pneumonic plague, the public has not yet been informed. The governor
is scheduled to hold a press conference carried live on all TV and
radio stations later that afternoon. During this press conference,
citizens will receive specific instructions for how to respond.
Meanwhile, the media suspect something big has happened. TV and
radio stations begin speculating that Baltimore was struck by a
bioterrorist attack. Panic begins to set in.
What happened in Westminster during these three hours? The State
Emergency Management Agency has asked the Community Hospital to free
up as many beds as possible to provide overflow capacity for
Baltimore city hospitals. The County Health Department is activating
six dispensing sites at county high schools to provide the public
with antibiotics. The state and city police have been activated to
coordinate security at the dispensing sites. The media have set up
camp in front of city hall and the county health department and are
descending in droves on any person entering or leaving the building.
The county public safety administrator, health officer, HAZMAT team
chair, police chief, and the hospital safety manager are
continuously flooded with media requests demanding information.
Apart from continuing preparations for responding to the medical
emergency and for controlling travel in and out of Westminster, the
primary focus during this phase of the exercise is on control of
public information and how to deal with the media. After these
issues have been discussed, the game is advanced once more.
Stage Three
For the final briefing, the scenario is advanced another 6–8 hours.
By now, the governor has informed the public about the attack. TV
channels provide a running total of the number of patients infected
and the number of deaths. Information is still fuzzy and, as a
result, some numbers are grossly inflated. Citizens are flooding to
the various dispensing sites set up around the state to receive
treatment. The number of citizens who are either on their way to
dispensing sites or are already waiting in line to receive treatment
by far exceeds the number anticipated by state health officials.
While most citizens follow instructions, incidents where individuals
are trying to “jump the line” are increasing and crowd control is
becoming an issue. Virtually all members of the emergency response
team are now inundated with media inquiries. Thirty-five patients
showing symptoms of pneumonic plague have been admitted to the local
hospital. Dispensing sites are opened by early evening at six high
schools in the county. So far, some 1,000 county inhabitants have
been treated with antibiotics. Another 3,500 are waiting for
treatment at the sites. Roads to and from the dispensing sites are
clogged with thousands more hoping to get treatment as soon as
possible. During this phase of the exercise the focus lies on public
information, crowd and traffic control, and prevention of panic.
The Debriefing
The simulation concludes with a general debriefing session during
which all participants reflect on the exercise and the insights
produced by it. First, if practitioners and community officials are
present, they have the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of
the students' overall emergency response plan and evaluate what, if
anything, could be improved upon at each stage of the exercise.
Second, students complete individual evaluations in which they
assess their experience and suggest changes and improvements. This
evaluation is conducted either after community officials leave or at
the beginning of the debriefing for exercises that do not involve
community participation. Finally, the floor is opened for general
discussion during which students have a chance to comment freely on
their experience and, where applicable, on their interactions with
the practitioners. At this point, the instructor should comment on
the learning objectives, the flow of the exercise, students'
performance, practitioners' contributions, and possible improvements
for future exercises.
Grading
Students' performance is assessed on a scale from excellent to poor in
terms of how accurately they describe their responsibilities, how true
to their roles they act, how articulate, professional, and organized
they present themselves, how informed, logical, and convincing their
recommendations and responses to questions are, and how well they are
able to think on their feet, defend their recommendations, and integrate
into their team.
Benefits of the Exercise—What Worked, What Didn't
Overall, I have been very satisfied with the extent to which this
exercise has achieved the learning objectives outlined above. It
promoted cooperative learning and enhanced students' ability to work in
a team. It helped develop critical thinking and public speaking skills,
increased students' understanding of the complexities of political
decisions at the local level and, more specifically, of responding to a
bioterrorist attack at the local level, and allowed them to translate
theoretical knowledge into political practice and interact with
practitioners and local politicians in a professional context.
Many students really “get into” their roles. While this is a desirable
outcome, it also presents a possible source of contention, especially
when specific students begin to dominate the discussion and consistently
volunteer responses to the questions. The exercise itself is skewed by
the nature of the role responsibilities. Roles that, according to the
exercise scenario, are more dominant are the county health officer, the
public safety administrator, the police and fire chiefs, and the
individuals who function as incident commander and public information
officer. Instructors and community officials who ask questions must
ensure that every student has a fair chance to present his or her ideas
and recommendations. For instance, health questions can be distributed
between the county health officer and the hospital safety manager and
infection control officer, and questions regarding traffic and crowd
control can be spread to the police chief, the county roads bureau
chief, the state highway engineer, and the state police barracks
commander.
In evaluating the merits of this exercise, students overwhelmingly agreed
that, among other things, it was relevant to a course on national
security, presented a useful teaching tool, provided a good balance
between book knowledge and practical application, was challenging
intellectually, and, importantly, was fun. Most students also indicated
that they liked playing their roles, interviewing community officials,
and briefing real emergency responders.1
This information was obtained from analysis of exercise
evaluations administered to students in three different
emergency response teams. Even though a total of only 33
students provided their evaluation of the exercise, the
overwhelmingly positive responses indicate a very clear support
for continuing this exercise in the future.
In addition, a number of students commented favorably about the exercise
in their final course evaluations. One student observed that the
“exercise made students react to the real world,” another liked that it
forced him or her “think outside the box.” Some students enjoyed the
teamwork aspect of the exercise and others expressed appreciation and
respect for the challenges first responders face and, more generally,
for the contributions of local government to national security. One
student concluded, “far more than most other assignments, I really began
thinking as if I were in that position …. It was an incredible
experience, especially with real people in their positions listening and
critiquing.”
In general, students' level of enthusiasm and engagement and their
comments about the exercise indicate that “The Meyerhoff Incident” was a
great success, especially because it broke up the ordinary classroom
routine, gave students a stake in their education, and put them in
control of their own learning. The exercise was not only intellectually
exciting but it also made this course, and more generally the study of
politics, more relevant to the real world.
Biography
Volker Franke is associate professor of political science and
international studies at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He
currently also serves as director and managing editor of the National
Security Studies Case Studies Program at the Maxwell School of Public
Affairs at Syracuse University.
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