Subject: Cultural SD

Posted by Dexter Chapin on 12/4/2008
In Reply To:Cultural SD Posted by Lees N. Stuntz on 12/2/2008

Message:

I teach HS juniors and seniors Biology, Environmental Science and Cultural Anthropology. I use Stella extensively. About 10 percent of my students hate it, 15 percent love it, and the rest use it competently. But it takes a long time to teach. If I could, I would not use it. Teaching SD without models might be possible. By models, do we just mean Stella/Vensim sorts of things? If so, I’m sure that it can be done. If we mean that things like, dare I say it, causal loop models (CLM’s), I have to believe that it might be difficult. It seems to me that looking at systems means looking at the connections and interactions. Absent any sort of diagram, conversation about more than the absolutely simple system will be difficult to follow.
I understand that CLM’s do not have a good aroma but they require no technology more complicated than pencil and paper. Colored pencils are nice; but not a requirement. CLM’s are the functional equivalent of the map level of a Stella model and they allow some really excellent, and somewhat efficient, discussions of competing hypotheses about how the World might work.
Students find CLM’s very easy to understand. There is a very short learning curve associated with them, and the visual aspect appeals to a whole slew of kids. You can teach a lot of ST/SD without using computers, but with no models at all, I have to believe it would be difficult

Follow Ups:

Cultural SD - Niall Palfreyman 12/4/2008