System Dynamics Activities Adapted from The Systems Thinking ...

Thumb WrestlingGrade level: 5Lesson outcomes: To practice the art of seeing unintended consequences.Students will see that their mental models affect the actions they take.Integration area(s): This activity can be used during the IndustrialRevolution unit to show students that careful thought and planning can perhapsprevent unintended consequences in the long run. This will help students tosuccessfully plan out their inventions.An integration into the Women’s Suffrage Movement could be that prior to themovement, the prevalent mental models about women and their role in societydid not support women voting. Or an example from slavery...if peoples’ mentalmodel was that Africans were less intelligent, it might be a justification forslavery.Preparation: See The Systems Thinking Playbook, pages 24-27, for detailedinstructions.Closure/Debrief: Ask students what their “mental models” are in regard to thegame of thumb wrestling. (ie. whenever they played the game in the past, theobject was for one person to get more points than the other.) Point out tostudents that the directions were to get as many points as possible, not to get morepoints than their opponent. Ask the students to discuss winning and losingstrategies, and perhaps try the exercise again. Discuss unintended consequenceswith the students in the context of an invention (ie. internal combustion enginescausing air pollution).Resources: The Systems Thinking Playbook, By Linda Booth©1995 by Linda Booth8