| The Tree Game for Primary Students (Grades K-3) |
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Author(s):
Anne LaVigne, & Lindsey Weaver |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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Students explore what happens to the number of trees in a forest over time as a forester plants and a lumberjack harvests a certain number of trees each year. While playing the game, the class tracks the number of trees over time. Students can see trends and discuss what’s happening to the forest and why, connecting it to real-world needs and desires for lumber and paper products. They can then run and discuss a second scenario that shows how that trend can be reversed.
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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 Zipped (Models & PDF)
Link to the simulation: http://www.clexchange.org/curriculum/shapeofchange/soc_6_treegame.asp
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| Three Things to Remember About Behavior-over-Time Graphs |
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Author(s):
Alan Ticotsky |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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BOTGs are designed to represent our thinking. All BOTG graphs allow our 'mental models' to take a visual form so we can share them, or analyze them ourselves. Alan Ticotsky presents three insights which will help utilize BOTGs effectively. |
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 PDF
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| Tuck Everlasting: System Dynamics, Literature, and Living Forever |
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Author(s):
Carolyn Platt, Rob Quaden, & Debra Lyneis |
Subject:
English |
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In this lesson, sixth grade students use system dynamics tools to explore themes in the novel "Tuck Everlasting," by Natalie Babbitt. After reading the novel, students use behavior over time graphs and a simple system dynamics computer model to discuss their opinions on the story's major themes. |
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Zipped (Models & PDF)
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| Using Systems Thinking to Develop Literacy Skills |
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Author(s):
Brian Bindschadler |
Subject:
Conference |
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In this session, participants will explore various ways to use systems tools to increase deep thinking and literacy in the classroom. We will focus on developing the Habits of a Systems Thinker using the Iceberg Visual, Behavior-Over-Time Graphs, and Stock-Flow diagrams. These tools can be used in any level classroom—from preschool through high school—and beyond. Each tool will be “unpacked” with explanations and examples, and participants will have opportunities to develop their own applications for these powerful literacy tools. |
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| Using Systems Tools to Improve Literacy |
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Author(s):
Alan Ticotsky |
Subject:
English |
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The natural fit between systems thinking and a class named "Critical Thinking and Reading" (CTR), taught by Mired Orpen, has been made operational at the Innovation Academy Charter School in Tyngsborough, MA. This short article explains how it is done and what it accomplishes. |
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| When a Butterfly Sneezes Story 1: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie |
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Author(s):
Linda Booth Sweeney |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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This story illustrates simple cause and effect relationships and unintended consequences. |
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| When a Butterfly Sneezes Story 10: Tree of Life, The World of the African Baobab |
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Author(s):
Linda Booth Sweeney |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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Describes the life cycle of the Baobab tree and the animals and plants that depend on it. Includes connections to concepts such as feedback relationships and delays. |
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| When a Butterfly Sneezes Story 11: The Lorax |
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Author(s):
Linda Booth Sweeney |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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The desire to have more and more drives the Once-ler to chop down more and more trees to create a product he sells. Eventually, the trees are gone.
Complex Systems Connection: Short and Long Term Conflicts. The short-term action of cutting down trees (taking a resource faster than it can regenerate) eventually leads (after a delay) to the disappearance of the forest. |
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| When a Butterfly Sneezes Story 12: Who Speaks for Wolf, A Native American Learning Story |
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Author(s):
Linda Booth Sweeney |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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Based on a Native American story, a tribe lives among wolves in an interconnected holistic system. |
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| When a Butterfly Sneezes Story 2: The Old Lady Who Liked Cats |
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Author(s):
Linda Booth Sweeney |
Subject:
Cross-Curricular |
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When a mayor decides to eliminate all the cats on an island, it creates a cascading set of negative effects.
Complex Systems Connection: Ineffective Action, Short and Long Term Conflicts. By removing the cats, the system is completely pushed out of balance, creating havoc on the system as a whole. Only by bringing back the cats do the issues resolve. |
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