Subject: Cultural SD

Posted by John F. Heinbokel on 12/2/2008
In Reply To:Cultural SD Posted by Lees N. Stuntz on 12/2/2008

Message:

Hi Lees, Jay, Oleg, and Others.

When Jeff Potash and I were still faculty at Trinity College, we developed a number of interdisciplinary courses that were intended to utilize Systems Thinking and Dynamic Modeling as tools to support student learning about complex, real-world systems. We began in 1993 with “Plagues and People,” exploring the impact of epidemic disease on human history. At the end of the semester students spent a month conceptualizing the stocks/flows/feedbacks/delays inherent in the U.S. HIV/AIDS outbreak. Jeff and I translated those concepts to a running model (that closely mimic’d the then current 5-10 year projections from the CDC) that provided a platform for exploring the efficacy of policies such as clean needle exchange, condom distribution (at our Catholic women’s college, we closed the door for that part of the discussion ), monogamy, etc.

Without going into so much detail, we subsequently developed additional courses: Population Growth and the Human Experience (a lot of time spent tracking the development of ‘agriculture’ and its implications in contemporary lands of famine), and Sustainable Development (using at the end an extensive run-through of Dennis Meadow’s STRATEGEM game).

These college courses had two offshoots over the years:
1. For several years we used one or another of these courses on-site at a local High School as a vehicle for offering graduate education credits to high school and middle school teachers, college credits for AP-quality high school students, and enrichment for various community members, all working together in an area in which none of them was expert. Those were wonderful implementations of the typically elusive ‘community of learners’ that we often seek.
2. Portland (OR) Public Schools commissioned us to provide curricular materials that eventually grew into a 10 case-study set of “Biology and History of Smallpox” (or “History and Biology of Smallpox,” if Jeff, my historian partner in these endeavors, is describing the set).

I’m not sure that these experiences exactly meet Lees’ request for input, but I’ve been looking for an opportunity to revisit them and expose them again to the light of day. Rather than offer more detail, we’ll be happy to respond to questions and continue to be engaged in any further discussion that arises.

John