Back when I was in middle school, and maybe even early high school, teachers would break us off into groups and give us little story problems and force us to work them out. They all had similar themes-- you’re stranded in the jungle or an astronaut stuck on the moon and waiting to be rescued and you had to prioritize a list of items that you could have from most to least important, or Earth is about to be destroyed and you can send a spaceship to a lunar colony and have to pick a limited amount of people from a list, given their ages, professions, and a bit of background info. We’d spend the entire class period arguing about whether or not someone needs a gun on the moon, or whether a 34-year-old carpenter with a vasectomy was better than a 61-year-old alcoholic doctor if you could only have ten people to repopulate the Earth, and then five minutes before the bell everyone would share their lists and how they came to the conclusions they did.
I have no idea what terms to use to google for examples of these, so I’m hoping there’s a middle school teacher or two out there who knows what I’m talking about and can find them for me.
Also, I have no idea where to put this question. Since I guess the questions themselves are creative works, I put it in Cafe Society.