System Dynamics Activities Adapted from The Systems Thinking ...

1-2-3 Go!Grade level: 5Lesson outcomes: Enhance students’ ability to better understand their ownthinking processes.Raise student awareness on how often automatic thought processes can obstructlearning, communication, and systems thinking. Good listening skills make for abetter systems thinker. By listening to understand, students get a better sense of“the system”.Integration area(s): This activity can be used anytime throughout the year toincrease awareness of mental models and “going wide”, which is a systemsthinking term for using mental peripheral vision to see complex cause and effectrelationships.Preparation: See The Systems Thinking Playbook II, pages 60-64, for detailedinstructions.Closure/Debrief: This activity lends itself to the introduction of “The LadderOf Inference” that is described in The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge,pages 242-246. It is also a way to revisit the concept of mental models.Resources:The Systems Thinking Playbook II, By Linda Booth Sweeney©1996 by Linda Booth Sweeney14