| Shape of Change (Lesson 2): Making Friends, including Stocks and Flows |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky , & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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From "The Shape of Change." A non-competitive tagging game, wherein students track the rate of growth of friendship and discover the effect of rates of growth, including showing why change occurs by means of stock/flow diagrams. |
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| Shape of Change (Lesson 3): The Mammoth Game, including Stocks and Flows |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky, & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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From "The Shape of Change." Teams of students play a dice and graphing game to track the population growth and decline of a herd of twenty mammoths, including learning why change occurs by means of stock/flow diagrams. |
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| Shape of Change (Lesson 4): It's Cool, including Stocks and Flows |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky, & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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From "The Shape of Change." Students engage in the scientific method as they measure, record, and graph the changing temperature of a cooling cup of boiling water, learning why the change happens with the use of stock/flow diagrams. |
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| Shape of Change (Lesson 5): The Infection Game, including Stocks and Flows |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky, & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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From "The Shape of Change." Students play a game that simulates the spread of an epidemic. The included Infection Game stock/flow map combines all the elements that were used in the previous lessons. Students apply all that they have learned about behavior over time graphs, stocks and flows, and reinforcing and balancing feedback loops to understand how and why the infection spread among them.
Complex Systems Connection: Separate Cause and Effect. For some illness/disease, symptoms appear long after initial infection. Sometimes people travel great distance while infected because they are unaware of the infection. Medical "detectives" faced with an epidemic must understand how the infection spreads and how quickly. Delays in the system make this more difficult. |
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| Shape of Change (Lesson 6): The Tree Game, including Stocks and Flows |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky, & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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From "The Shape of Change." Students explore what happens to the number of trees in a forest over time as a forester plants and harvests each year. With the included Stocks and Flows lesson, they gain experience anticipating and observing how a stock changes with different inflow and outflow rates.
Complex Systems Connection: Cause within System, Short and Long Term Conflicts. People sometimes decide to use natural resources to meet present goals (satisfy customers, increase profits) and ignore long-term consequences. In systems where renewable resources are used up, people often blame others. Decisions to use the resource faster than it can be replenished is the real cause, however. |
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| Shape of Change (Lesson 7): The Tree Game Puzzle, including Stocks and Flows |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky, & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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From "The Shape of Change." This puzzle is an extension of the Tree Game. After playing the Tree Game, students explore what happens to the number of trees in a forest following a variety of planting and harvesting policies. In the Stocks and Flows lesson, students begin to learn to clarify their thinking, and experience the power of making stock/flow maps.
Complex Systems Connection: Short and Long Term Conflicts, Cause within System. People sometimes decide to use natural resources to meet present goals (satisfy customers, increase profits) and ignore long-term consequences. In systems where renewable resources are used up, people often blame others. Decisions to use the resource faster than it can be replenished is the real cause, however. |
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| Shape of Change (Lesson 8): The Rainforest Game, including Stocks and Flows |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky, & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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From "The Shape of Change." In this simulation game, students act out the lives of trees, following different planting and harvesting policies. Students may be surprised to learn that, while the game seems very active, the stock/flow map of the game is quite basic.
Complex Systems Connection: Short and Long Term Conflicts, Separate Cause and Effect.
People sometimes decide to use natural resources to meet present goals (satisfy customers, increase profits) and ignore long-term consequences. Delays in a system involving renewable resources can make it difficult to understand how present decisions to use the resource will affect long-term sustainability. |
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| Shape of Change (Lesson 9): The Connection Game, including Stocks and Flows |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky, & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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From "The Shape of Change." Students play a game in which their movements around the room depend on the movements of other players.
Complex Systems Connection: Ineffective Action, Incorrect High-Leverage Policies. This lesson can be used to gain an intuitive understanding of what it means to say a policy has "low leverage." This lesson can be used to gain an intuitive understanding of what it means to say a policy has "high leverage." |
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| Studying The Lorax with Feedback Loops |
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Author(s):
Rob Quaden, & Alan Ticotsky |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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Students read "The Lorax," by Dr. Suess, and then develop a connection circle and causal loops to understand and illustrate the themes of the story.
Complex Systems Connection: Separate Cause and Effect, Short and Long Term Conflicts. Short-term focus on making money results in depletion of resource and environmental degradation over time and the collapse of the business. Actions and their detrimental consequences are separated by time. |
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| The In and Out Game: A Preliminary System Dynamics Modeling Lesson |
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Author(s):
Alan Ticotsky, Rob Quaden, & D. Lyneis |
Subject:
Implementation |
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Prepared with the support of the Gordon Stanley Brown Fund. The In and Out Game is a preliminary system dynamics modeling lesson for kindergarten and primary grade students which is also adapted for use with upper elementary and middle school students. Young students learn about stocks and flows by physically moving into and out of the group of players in the game. |
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 Zipped (Models & PDF)
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