Subject: Utilizing STELLA in High School

Posted by John Heinbokel on 4/20/2006
In Reply To:Utilizing STELLA in High School Posted by Alex Leus on 4/11/2006

Message:

Alex (and others following this thread),



The “Educational Modeling Exchange” (EME) was instituted at the CLE in the past year to provide modeling and teacher-training assistance, to develop exemplary materials, and to coordinate external fund-raising. The work you are proposing as a ‘Citizen Champion’ in your community is wonderful; I hope we’ll be able to provide some useful assistance. Much of our background and philosophy and descriptions of some of our past projects can be found at: http://www.ciesd.org. I’ll try to develop some initial general thoughts, as well, in this note.



At the risk of flogging the obvious, ST and Dynamic Modeling (STELLA or VENSIM applications) will only be appealing and utilized, if they help teachers (and students) be more successful (or be equally successful, but quicker and/or more easily) at something(s) they feel obliged or otherwise motivated to accomplish. While we feel strongly that our approach (“Ladder of Engagement”) that utilizes the SD tools to work sequentially through exploration of “knowledge,” “understanding,” and “engagement,” to foster what Barry Richmond termed “systems citizenship,” is a powerful and desirable one with which to support student learning and engagement, the trick has always been to translate those beliefs into terms and illustrations that are credible to the teachers with whom we are working. I assume that’s what you mean about seeking “buy-in from the teachers.”



SD in general, and STELLA in particular as one of the available SD tools, can be used in many different ways: from a relatively mundane variation on a spread-sheet, to an aid to more concretely visualizing processes that might seem abstract (often especially useful for special-needs kids), to illustrating how generic processes crop up in many distinct topical domains (e.g. exponential growth in terms of biological populations, interest-bearing savings, spread of rumors, spread of innovation, out of control nuclear fission (or other ‘infections’), etc.), to providing a framework for students to devise and test policies or approaches to real-world (e.g. community) problems. So who is your audience likely to be (strictly the math/physics folks with whom you currently work, or a broader mix of disciplines?)? How are they (or more importantly, how are their students) most likely to profit from access to STELLA (what do you visualize that STELLA will help them do better? Are they mostly concerned about student performance on high-stakes, limited-focus, standardized tests or on fostering higher level analytical tools and community engagement?)? Is the benefit likely to be achieved by students and teachers building STELLA models or by using pre-existing ones? Then, depending on how those questions are answered, put together a workshop that obliges the teachers to use STELLA (and that includes carefully focused conversation on the conceptual and structural foundations of the chosen exercise and on the better, or deeper, questions that any such activity are likely to generate!). If the teachers can experience and be impressed by the quality or pace of learning that is fostered by use of STELLA, then you may get the buy-in you need. When that doesn’t happen, we’ve had very poor ‘conversion rates.’ I like Niall’s suggestions in an earlier reply – with the caveat that alcohol consumption/metabolism/safe driving would need to be a system of interest and relevance to your audience. The general approach he suggests, independent of the specific topic, is certainly consistent with our experience.



I’ve gone on too long developing general themes and points. Push back as appropriate to direct our (the whole list’s) focus more tightly on just where we can be of greatest service. Good luck and please keep us posted.





john