Subject: K-12 SD Research

Posted by Linda Booth Sweeney on 7/25/2003
In Reply To:K-12 SD Research Posted by Tim Joy on 7/25/2003

Message:

Tim, it is such a pleasure to hear how you engage kindergarten folk in the world of systems.

Jose, you might also help your students to think about cycles and the behaviors of cycles. We typically think of a cycle as some closed loop of flowing material or information. Tim provides some accessible examples of cycles below (rock, h20 etc)... To help children to think about systems, we also want them to consider the behavior of the cycle... Is it goal-seeking? oscillating? reinforcing? and so on.

You might present your students with examples of simple closed-loop cycles and have them compare those cycles to very simple feedback loops. Compare a water cycle with a predator/prey situation. What's are the differences between two?*...Or compare simple reinforcing loops with balancing loops...

In their 1977 study The hydrolic cycle and the wisdom of the child, Kates and Katz found that some 4 year olds could draw accurate descriptions of the hydrolic cycle. I think 5 to 6 year olds are more than capable of learning about cycles and feedback structures and even making some distinctions between the two.

Finally, I'm not sure if you've contacted Jan Mons yet, but if not, you should. She and her colleagues in Athens, Georgia have written a wonderful piece called "A Systems Dynamics Primer." I believe it is available through the Waters Foundation (see www.watersfoundation.org).


My best,
Linda

Follow Ups:

K-12 SD Research - Wesley Burt 7/25/2003