Subject: Irish Potato Famine Model

Posted by John Heinbokel on 3/10/2006

Message:

Friends and Colleagues,



In our article in the most recent CLE Newsletter (Winter 2006; http://www.clexchange.org/ftp/newsletter/CLEx15.1.pdf) we used a scenario based on the Irish Potato Famine to develop some thoughts on the use of system dynamics and systems thinking tools to support middle- and high-school social studies. We certainly would welcome comments and reflections on that article and remind folks that we are also seeking input on your own use of such tools to support student learning in social studies.



The Irish Potato Famine is an illustration that has been part of our DemoDozen for many years now. [For anyone unfamiliar with DemoDozen, it is a set of 12 hands-on simulations for exploring or, more commonly, managing diverse systems.] As part of the process of drafting the Newsletter article, however, we went to that simulation and did some significant revising and updating. We welcome the opportunity to share that with anyone who would like to play with it – either for their own curiosity or for use with students. Just reply to us here at CIESD (info@ciesd.org) and we’ll attach it to a return e-mail.



FYI, the revision of the Irish Potato Famine model is actually part of a larger re-examination of the entire DemoDozen package. We are just about finished updating all the units and making sure that they all work well with both STELLA8 and the recently released STELLA9. That entire package (and perhaps a 13th, ‘bakers-dozen’ simulation as well) will be ready for distribution shortly. We’ll announce the availability of that new version, when it’s good to go.



Thanks for your interest; we look forward to hearing from you.



John Heinbokel

Jeff Potash