Subject: Cultural SD

Posted by Niall Palfreyman on 12/4/2008
In Reply To:Cultural SD Posted by Dexter Chapin on 12/4/2008

Message:

I agree and disagree with Dexter. My experience is that students find stock and flow diagrams surprisingly difficult to use. On the other hand causal loop diagrams just don't offer the essential distinction between converters and flows. Could it be the solution is just to use pencil and paper for stock-and-flow diagrams? I certainly think the idea of a stock comes across quickly to my students - it's just that they get muddled up with the initial conditions which are necessary to run a model.

Niall Palfreyman.