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Computer micorworlds are becoming a popular tool for both instruction and research in the natural and social sciences. Unlike a verbal description, the microworld provides the students an opportunity to experience in a non-passive and first hand manner the effect of alternative courses of action on the system they are exploring. This is because the student can repeat over and over the same sequence of events and observe the outcome of alternative effects. This presentation will illustrate how a relatively simple microworld was integrated into the classroom in courses in Israel and New Zealand in order to demonstrate to the students the constraints and dynamics of decision-making within the context of a protracted conflict. Another element that the students learned for themselves was the dilemma between their cognitive impulses and rational decision-making practices. The students were so captivated by this exercise that they did not want to leave the class when it ended, and requested to experiment with the simulator after the class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]