Traveling and moving between countries is stressful, and the last thing people want is to hear that some of the items they were most excited to bring to the U.S., ones that remind them of home or of a happy time abroad, might get taken away at the border. But that is exactly what we want to teach about at the Don’t Pack a Pest for Academic Traveler Program, and allow students and faculty to make informed decisions about packing.
Our environments and agriculture are in a delicate balance, and the sad truth is that sometimes the risk of pests or diseases necessitates that CBP confiscation heartache. But the best way to avoid that problem is to know what might get confiscated beforehand. As an Academic Traveler Student Ambassador, I wanted to develop a simple game that could educate people about packing regulations in an approachable way. And that’s why I made the “Ditch or Declare” bean bag toss.
The premise is this: players are given bean bags which are painted to represent items they may want to carry across the border with them, such as soup mix, grains, or fruits. They are asked to stand on a chalk X a few feet away and given a choice represented by two bins, a suitcase to pack the item and declare it to customs, or a basket/trash can to leave it behind (ditch it) so it won’t be confiscated. The format of a bean bag toss lets players connect their thought process to motor skills and work for a natural goal of getting every bag into the correct bins.
As a player, this is a fun way to learn information that could otherwise feel overwhelming, and most people have intuitive guesses for which bin each item belongs in. For the items which were mistakenly packed in Declare, players can learn more about the pest or disease risk associated with that item, and for the Ditched items they would be happy to learn that some might be permitted.
The person running the game could then explain that both options are the “correct” one. By leaving items behind, you play it safe and won’t risk confiscation at all, and by declaring, Customs can inspect the items and determine if they are safe to let into the country. The game can easily be adapted by adding new bean bag items, or revising the answer key when regulations change.
We tested our activity at two tabling events, one hosted by our Ambassadors at Oregon State University Campus in June 2023 under the name “Ditch or Declare”, and the other at the August 2023 Ecological Society of America Meeting, renamed “Can I Bring It” to resonate with a more professional audience. Having an activity at informational booths can help people engage more and for longer (especially if the activity in question involves colorful elements that can be thrown). Many people were hesitant to come up to us until they were offered a game to play. After playing, people naturally wanted to know which answers were correct and why, which allowed us to give a short spiel about invasive species or pathogens.
Now, we are adapting the packing game for social media so more people can engage with it and learn about what they can bring across borders. Followers of @academictraveler on Instagram can play the social media version, “Can I Bring It?”.
