Subject: sharing your intro to SD notes/lecture

Posted by Lees N. Stuntz on 8/21/2010
In Reply To:sharing your intro to SD notes/lecture Posted by Sarah Duffer on 8/19/2010

Message:

Dear Sarah,

My assumption is that you are like all AP teachers, facing too much material in too little time. Integrating SD concepts into the curriculum you already teach would seem to give you the most "bang for your buck". Here are a few suggestions which you might find helpful, and I am sure there are many others that some of the experienced teachers would like to add.

First of all, one of the most helpful resources for you in general, looking at SD and environmental science, is probably Andrew Ford's book, Modeling the Environment (http://www.wsu.edu/~forda/). Andy has taught Environmental Science for years at WSU and is also a master system dynamicist. A second helpful resource you could draw on would be Diana Fisher's Modeling Dynamic Systems available through isee systems. It is based on her years of experience teaching a high school SD modeling class. There are lessons in that book, as well as in Andy's that would be appropriate for your students and would link to your course's content.

Secondly, especially the first year of doing this, I would look at the SD concepts you would find helpful for understanding in various pieces of your curriculum and introduce those in a simple way at the appropriate time. As you know, students often learn more thoroughly through experiences rather than through lectures. Some simple games and activities can introduce concepts which you can then build on, and eventually ( or sooner) you could set your students loose to model. For instance, if your topic would be illuminated by a discussion of stocks and flows, spending a class period or half a period on one of the simple games available in the Shape of Change and Shape of Change Stocks and Flows (all lessons available for free on the CLE website, www.clexchange.org). One example would be to use the infection game to discuss a number of SD concepts (stocks and flows, reinforcing feedback etc.) Some of the games in The Systems Thinking Playbook are also terrific for getting beginning SD concepts across. The Living Loop Game is a good example of an activity that helps participants get the "feeling" of balancing and reinforcing feedback loops.

I hope this helps and others can continue to add to this discussion.

Take care,
Lees