Subject: Request for Guidance on References for Systems Thinking

Posted by Jeff Potash on 9/7/2006
In Reply To:Request for Guidance on References for Systems Thinking Posted by Grace M. Lieberman on 9/7/2006

Message:

Grace –

Speaking on behalf of the CLE’s Educational Modeling Exchange (EME), I’d suggest there are several possible pathways for you to consider as powerful “first steps” for engaging members of your community:

(1) Two books, published by the CLE (and written by outstanding educators Rob Quaden and Alan Ticotsky, with support from Deb Lyneis), entitled The Shape of Change and The Shape of Change Stocks and Flows: A Beginning, offer some powerful curricular examples of how and where students (primarily at the late elementary and middle school levels) benefit from using some of the conceptual tools of system dynamics, including behavior-over-time graphs, causal-loop diagrams, and stock/flow feedback maps. There are several neat illustrations that incorporate environmental topics. Both books can be purchased from the CLE at www.clexchange.org.
(2) Also available at the CLE, as a free download is an “Introductory Packet” of six articles that make a strong case for how and where system dynamics offers the potential to alter students’ “habits of mind” and, perhaps more critically, their long terrm actions. Reading Jay Forrester and Barry Richmond’s articles, in particular, may provide you and your peers with a thought-provoking “bigger picture” systemic perspective for developing the kinds of “systems citizens” that are at the core of CLE’s long-term mission.
(3) A final approach to consider is hands-on “play” or simulation. My colleague, John Heinbokel and I were inspired by some educational colleagues many years ago to construct a collection of (now) thirteen STELLA models, named “Demo Dozen,” designed to offer users the opportunity to first “manage” a variety of relatively simple systems, then to learn more through a “debriefing” on the “generic” feedback structure(s) that drive the system’s behaviors. Since John’s a biologist by training (I’m an historian), we included a few environmental illustrations, including a variation on Donella Meadows’ “Riddle of the Lilypad” and another involving policymaking on the “Kaibab Plateau” where environmentalists, hunters, and farmers clashed over predator-prey dynamics. Demo Dozen is freely available at our website (http://www.ciesd.org/influence/demo_dozen.shtml) and there are instructions for obtaining a free STELLA “player” to run these simulations.

That may be more information than you bargained for! Still, it’s important to recognize that there are a variety of ways to introduce people to the field: and the key, as with anything else, is to use that method or materials that address where people live.

Best of luck, and by all means, feel free to rattle our cage if and when we can be of assistance in the future.

Jeff Potash (and John Heinbokel)
Co-Directors
Educational Modeling Exchange (EME)