studying the lorax with feedback loops - Creative Learning Exchange

STUDYING THE LORAX WITH FEEDBACK LOOPSby Rob Quaden and Alan TicotskyThe Lorax, by Dr. Seuss, is a classic children’s book that appeals to allages. Told in a fanciful style, the story relates how an ambitiousbusinessman named the Once-ler exploits all the resources of a smallcountry. Despite the warnings of a character named the Lorax, all the truffulatrees are cut down and made into fast-selling products called thneeds. At theend of the story, the Once-ler regrets his actions but is it too late?Several important themes are central to The Lorax. Citizenship lessonsinclude the importance of environmental stewardship and the necessity forbusinesses to practice sustainable use of resources. While the characters areportrayed pretty broadly as black and white heroes or villains, in reality thereneeds to be room for both natural environments and economic development,creating more gray areas. The characters are driven by individual attributes,such as deciding how to behave honorably and regretting excessive greed andselfish behavior. By using systems thinking tools, the children can start to seeshades of grey instead of black and white. The story presents teachers with anopportunity to bring these and other important concepts into the classroom.With a new movie version having debuted in March, 2012, many studentswill be revisiting The Lorax, or experiencing it for the first time. A rich lessoncan be made even more powerful for first-time readers by comparing theoriginal text and drawings to the new version.Multiple state and national standards can be addressed through The Lorax, as well as local curriculum topics. In thislesson, students will• Evaluate complex information and ideas• Express logical arguments• Understand systems• Consider sustainability and environmental issues in relation to business growthHOW IT WORKSMany themes interact in the book. The natural growth cycle of business dominates for a while. The Once-ler makes lots ofmoney, uses it to expand his business and employ his relatives, and makes even more money. But growth cannot continueforever, and natural resources become depleted. Pollution plagues the country and the tree population declines until it is nolonger possible to produce thneeds. The Lorax’s voice of dissent is ignored until the treasures of the land are spoiled.In this lesson, students read The Lorax and then develop a connection circle and causal loops to understand and illustratethe themes of the story. Students will investigate how cycles compete for dominance, and think about how the needsof business and natural resources can collide.MATERIALS• Copy of The Lorax by Dr. SeussFor each team:• Copies of the Connection Circle template© 2012 Creative Learning Exchange www.clexchange.orgWorking in K-12 education to develop Systems CitizensPermission granted for photocopying and/or electronic distribution for non-commercial educational purposes with attribution

PROCEDURE1. READ THE STORYThe teacher should decide the bestmethod appropriate to his or herclass—read aloud, shared reading, etc.2. PREPARE THE CONNECTIONCIRCLEIf students have never used connectioncircles before, go over the rulesfor finding the elements of the story aslisted on the template at the end of thislesson plan. Each student can use acopy of the template or they can drawtheir own circles. We suggest workingin teams to encourage sharing of ideas.(For a full explanation, see The Shapeof Change, by Rob Quaden and AlanTicotsky, Creative Learning Exchange,2004, available on the CLE website.)3. CHOOSE THE ELEMENTSWithout too much prompting,students should identify the importantelements that change in the story.Encourage them to talk in teams whileeach student in the team creates his orher own connection circle. Possibleelements include truffula trees,thneeds, pollution, Once-ler’s greed,Once-ler’s profits, the Lorax’s anger,factory size, and other things thatchange quantitatively during the story.It may help to bundle the animals affected by the habitat degradation into oneelement rather than listing them individually. After students have worked inteams for a short time, lead a whole class session, allowing students to share theelements they have chosen. The teacher can build a composite circle on theoverhead or a chart pad. Each team may have a different interpretation, so thecircle produced by the whole class may have more elements than individual teamcircles. Building connection circles can help represent and clarify divergentthinking.Trees cutProfitsFactory sizeTruffulatreesThe Lorax’sangerOnce-ler’sgreedEnvironmentalqualityThneedsproducedAnimalpopulation“I believe we should givestudents a more effective wayof interpreting the worldaround them. They shouldgain a greater and wellfoundedconfidence formanaging their lives and thesituations they encounter.”Sample of elements around a connection circleDr. Jay Forrester,1994Page 2

4. Next, ask students to identify anelement around the circle that changesquantitatively in the story and causesanother element to change. Draw anarrow from the cause to the effect. Youmay label the direction of the changeby putting a + or – sign near the arrowhead. Use a + sign when the change isin the same direction and a – signwhen the change is in the oppositedirection.In the example below, the link from“Thneeds produced” to “Profits” is +because producing thneeds adds toprofits. The link from “Trees cut” to“Truffula trees” is – because cuttingtrees reduces the number of trees.TreescutProfitsFactorysize+Truffula Trees–The Lorax’sangerStudents may be confused at first when using + and – because thesigns do not always mean more and less. In the link between“thneeds produced” and “profits,” when production goes down,profits go down also. That’s still a positive (+) causal relationshipbecause the elements move in the same direction. When the elementsmove in opposite directions, the causal relationship is negative (–).A trickier example is births and population. Even when the number ofbirths decreases, “births” to “population” is a positive (+) causalrelationship, since any birth increases the population. Both elementsmove in the same direction.One or two examples should beenough to get students started. Havethem work in teams as each studentdraws his or her own connections.EnvironmentalqualityOnce-ler’sgreedSample of elements around a connection circle, with a few arrowsfrom cause to effectPage 3ThneedsproducedAnimalpopulation5. After students have had a short timeto work in teams, bring the classtogether to share some of the connections.The circles may look clutteredwith arrows at this point. (See PartialDiagram on next page.) Ask if studentscan trace a path so that they canstart at one element, travel along thearrows to at least one other element,and return to the starting point.6. Instruct students to trace over thepathways using highlighting pens orcolored pencils.7. Have them copy the pathways theyhave traced onto a separate page,drawing them as loops. Chooserepresentatives to draw these loops onthe board or on overhead transparenciesin order to share them with theclass. Name the loops for reference.Students should gain insight as theylook at loops and find leverage pointswithin the story.Elements around the circle witharrows in only one direction (comingin only or going out only) indicate thatstudents have not identified feedbackloops containing that element. Insome cases, the element is not centralto the story, or the informationavailable doesn’t tell us enough tomake another connection. Sometimesstudents need to add an element to thecircle to complete a loop.

Trees Treescut cutFactoryFactorsizey sizeProfitsprofitsOnce‐ler’sgreedTruffulaTruffula trees treesThe Lorax’sLorax’s angerangerTrees cut•Makes student thinking visibleEnvironmental •Helps students make connectionsqualityEnvironmentalquality•Allows students to explore multipleways to solve problemsThneeds Thneeds•Develops reading and writingproduced produced skills•Increases student engagementOnce-ler’sOnce‐ler’s greedgreedPartial Diagram: Sample of elements around a connection circle,with many arrows from cause to effect+++Benefits of Systems ThinkingThe examples that follow demonstrateone complete loop and oneAnimal Animalpopulation incomplete loop. The complete looppopulation(below left) tells that as the Once-ler’sgreed increased, he cut down moretrees. That led him to increase thefactory size. More thneeds wereproduced, which increased profits. Asprofits grew, the Once-ler’s greed grewas he continued to seek more wealth.This might be named the “profits”loop or the “greed” loop.StocksOnce the important loopsare identified, it is goodpractice to put a rectanglearound the elements andtalk with the students aboutthe fact that the elementsin the story are stocks.profits+Profits LoopThneedsproduced+FactorysizeElements or units that go upand down, that can accumulateor diminish, are calledstocks. (See Quaden,Ticotskyand Lyneis, “In and OutGame,” from The Shape ofChange, available from theCreative Learning Exchangewebsite, www.clexchange.org.)Complete LoopPage 4

?Lorax’sangerLorax’sanger--Once‐ler’sgreedOnce‐ler’sgreed+AnimalpopulationIncomplete LoopEnvironmentloopEnvironmentLoop-Animal+population++Trees cutEnvironmentalqualityTrees cut+-Environmentalquality-8. DEALING WITH INCOMPLETELOOPSExamine an incomplete loop with thestudents. In the example on the left,the Once-ler’s greed grows, and moretrees are cut down. Environmentalquality decreases, causing a decreasein the animal population. As theanimal population goes down, theLorax’s anger goes up. What does theLorax’s anger cause?Students will probably face thisquestion. Does the Lorax’s anger affectthe other elements of the connectioncircle? Or, to state the question from asystems perspective, is there anyfeedback resulting from the anger?Some students will contend that theLorax’s anger actually makes theOnce-ler greedier or at least moredetermined to exploit the Truffulatrees. “Business is business” after all.Another interpretation is that there isa long delay in the story. After theenvironment is destroyed, the Oncelerfinally feels regret. The “Lorax’sanger” reduces “Once-ler’s greed” asthe ruined entrepreneur now understandswhat he has done. That closesthe loop, making an EnvironmentLoop (lower left) to contrast with theProfits Loop.Sometimes a new element is neededto close a loop. Students may add afactor that does not appear on theirconnection circle. For example,“Once-ler’s regret” may be an elementthat changes during the story, causedby the Lorax’s behavior or the overalldegradation of the environment, orboth. Then the Once-ler’s regretreduces or eliminates his greed. Seethe Environment Loop on the nextpage.Page 5

‐Once‐ler’sgreed+Once‐ler’sregretEnvironmentLoopEnvironmentloopTrees cut+ ‐Lorax’sanger‐Environmentalquality-+Animalpopulation+9. COMBINING THE LOOPSOnce students have developed twoor three loops, check to see if anelement is part of more than one loop.Where elements overlap, two loopscan be combined. Students in one classdeveloped three loops.Page 6

The element “Thneed Production” occurs in all three loops, so the loopscan be combined:Once the loops are combined inone diagram, encourage students tostate the dynamics of the Lorax storyin their own words. By referring to thedifferent loops in the diagram, studentscan trace how different loopsdominate at different points in thestory. Seeing how loop dominancechanges and affects complex systems isan important technique.10. SUMMING UPUse this lesson plan as an example,and expect that students will havediffering opinions about The Lorax, asthey will about any complex issue.Encourage students to use the connectioncircle tool to find feedback loopsthat will help explain and illustratetheir arguments.Stories and issues often hinge onconflicting loops. Dominance amongloops may change and affect the story,as it does in The Lorax. The ProfitsLoop, the Production Loop, and theLorax’s Environment Loop are allconnected. Students will see that theloops contain some elements incommon. Wherever humans build,these loops will come into play. Whilethere are no easy solutions, understandingthe feedback loops helps usunderstand the situation and makemore informed decisions.© 2012 Creative Learning Exchange www.clexchange.orgWorking in K-12 education to develop Systems CitizensPermission granted for photocopying and/or electronic distribution for non-commercial educational purposes with attributionThe image of a book cover is on page 1 and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who created the cover or the publisher of thebook. It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of book covers to illustrate an article discussing the book in question qualifies as fair use underUnited States copyright law. Other use of this image might be copyright infringement.Page 7

NAME __________________________CONNECTION CIRCLESRules1. Draw a large circle.2. List important elements around the circle.A. Restrict the number to between five and ten.B. All elements should be nouns or noun phrases.C. Elements can increase or decrease.3. Identify an element that causes another element to increase or decrease.A. Draw an arrow from the cause to the effect.B. Make sure that the causal connection is a direct one.C. Identify polarity of arrow and label with a + or a - near the arrow head.4. Continue to identify elements with causal connections.

Connection to Characteristics of Complex Systems ProjectLesson Titles:Lessons from The Lorax: Using Graphs to Study ChangeStudying The Lorax with Feedback LoopsOverview:These two lessons on Dr. Seuss’s classic children’s book, The Lorax, provide a rich opportunityto students to learn environmental stewardship and why businesses must practice sustainable useof resources.Related Characteristic(s) of Complex Systems:• Conflicts arise between short-term and long-term goals.• Cause and effect are not closely related in time or space.Ideas and Examples for Connecting to the Characteristic:Individuals or groups may use resources to meet short-term goals at the expense of sustainingthose resources over the long-term. In The Lorax, a business run by the Once-ler depletes thetruffula trees to make products called thneeds.Ask students questions such as, “What is the Once-ler likely to do if demand increases?” “Whatshould the Once-ler do to ensure sustainability into the future?” “How many thneeds can bemade when all the truffula trees are gone?” “What happens to the population without thneeds?”An archetype, such as the Tragedy of the Commons, can illustrate how using a resource fasterthan it can regenerate leads to the loss of that resource. If the short-term goal is to harvest asmuch of the resource as possible, then the resource will decline (and possibly run out) in thelong-term.© 2013 Creative Learning Exchange www.clexchange.orgWorking in K-12 education to develop Systems CitizensPermission granted for photocopying and/or electronic distribution for non-commercial educational purposes with attribution

+Group A treeharvestRNet Gains-A+++BTotal harvest+B-Gain perharvest+Resource limitGroup B treeharvest+R++Net Gains-BFigure: Example of Tragedy of the CommonsA stock/flow diagram shows how the system has long delays. Once the damage is recognized(the resource is depleted), the problem cannot be fixed immediately; regeneration of trees cantake generations. When cause and effect are separated by time, it can be difficult to link the twotogether and see them as parts of a single system.SeedsSproutingSproutsGrowingSaplingsMaturingMatureTreesHarvestingTime to sproutTime to growTime to matureFigure: Stock/Flow diagram with time delaysResource(s)Other ideas for teaching The Lorax in the classroom:http://www.seussville.com/Educators/lorax_classroom/educatorlorax_plan.php“Road Maps 4—A Guide to Learning System Dynamics”http://clexchange.org/ftp/documents/Roadmaps/RM4/D-4504-7.pdf© 2013 Creative Learning Exchange www.clexchange.orgWorking in K-12 education to develop Systems CitizensPermission granted for photocopying and/or electronic distribution for non-commercial educational purposes with attribution