Teach Systems Thinking

What is systems
thinking? »

This page draws on materials developed at the 2010 Cutting Edge workshop on Complex Systemsand the 2012 InTeGrate workshops on Teaching the Methods of Geoscience andSystems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences.

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System thinking is an important skill for students as they grapple with the complex challenges that lie at the intersection of Earth systems and human interactions. Topics such as climate change, energy, population dynamics and resource use benefit from a systems-based approach. Additional reasons to incorporate systems thinking into your teaching include:

Complex problems are multidimensional. Both the problem and the solutions cut across multiple disciplines and "spheres."
Students tend to prefer simplified, black and white explanations which may be only partially accurate. A systems approach can introduce complexity in an elegant, conceptual way that students can appreciate.
Systems thinking goes hand-in-hand with interdisciplinary teaching and learning.
Systems thinking offers a means to blend natural systems with human, political, cultural or economic systems.
Encouraging students to think from a systems point of view can encourage creative problem solving outside the usual discipline-based channels.
A systems approach is useful for examining interdependencies. This is especially important for societal challenges where many variables are changing, which affects other variables. The interactions of these variables are key to predicting the future. This is all the more important when changes have the potential to trigger positive feedback mechanisms.
Making informed decisions, as individuals and a society, requires an understanding of the complexity of the systems that make up our planet.

Teaching Strategies and Example Classroom Activities

InTeGrate's Systems Thinking Module
These six units can be adapted to your course to help students boost their systems thinking skills. »Strengthening Teaching of Systems Thinking in your Course This is a set of recommendations used by InTeGrate authors as they developed materials for our teaching collection.

Several effective strategies for teaching systems thinking have been identified by Cutting Edge and InTeGrate workshop participants, including using:

Computer modeling including Stella
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STELLA is an easy-to-use modeling program that allows students to explore quantitative relationships. Faculty at the 2012 workshop found that:
- Using STELLA, quantitative relationships are applied rather than abstract and students can grasp the sign and the scale of these relationships without having to do complex math. This can help with math phobia.
- Working with STELLA provides a means to teach quantitatively, and in a way that can be applied to specific questions and processes.
- STELLA can be useful for introducing systems thinking to undergraduates and non-science majors (The use of STELLA as an experiment with freshman and sophomores resulted in the surprising outcome that students found it to be an empowering experience.)
- STELLA can be used in a scaffolded manner. For example, it can be used to introduce systems thinking and to prepare students for a more quantitative approach.
- Using Aldo Leopold's 'Odyssey', students can trace the journey of 'x' as the systems it encounters during its journey (such as the carbon cycle, trophic levels, hydrologic systems), having students diagram these systems as represented in Leopold's work.
- Read more about teaching complex systems with STELLA with links to activities such as Modeling the oceanic thermohaline circulation or Energy Balance Climate Model.
Inquiry using multiple representations
Role-playing
Concept maps Learn about developing concept maps and an example activity: Using concept mapping to experientially introduce systems thinking.
Case studies as a way of exploring systems thinking
- Ethanol production (read about Bentley University's ethanol module)
- Effects on climate and trade due to melting sea ice in the Northwest Passage.
- View case study assignments about earthquakes, landslides, coastal management, and Superfund sites

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Module 1: Introduction
Steven Vanek, Pennsylvania State Univ-Penn St. Erie-Behrend Coll; Karl Zimmerer, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

Module 10: Food Systems
Steven Vanek, Pennsylvania State Univ-Penn St. Erie-Behrend Coll; Karl Zimmerer, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

Module 11: Human-Environment Interactions
Steven Vanek, Pennsylvania State Univ-Penn St. Erie-Behrend Coll; Karl Zimmerer, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

Module 4: Food and Water
Gigi Richard, Fort Lewis College

Module 7: Soils and a Systems Approach to Soil Quality
Heather Karsten, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

Capstone Project Stage 1
Gigi Richard, Fort Lewis College

Module 9: Climate Change
Gigi Richard, Fort Lewis College

Module 5: Soils and Nutrients
Steven Vanek, Pennsylvania State Univ-Penn St. Erie-Behrend Coll

Module 2: History of Food Systems
Steven Vanek, Pennsylvania State Univ-Penn St. Erie-Behrend Coll; Karl Zimmerer, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

6. Energy from and to the Earth
Randolph Chambers, College of William and Mary

Browse the complete set of systems thinking activities »

Opportunities to Strengthen Systems Thinking in Your Classroom

Systems thinking is prevalent across the curriculum, especially with regard to sustainability issues. Even if you don't explicitly call it systems thinking, you can always make connections and point them out to your students. Simple examples of systems (predator-prey relationships, ice-albedo feedback) can be taught in general education courses to underscore the prevalence of systems in everyday life. In upper-level courses, you can use systems thinking to teach mathematics and quantitative reasoning. And you can always work with other faculty in your department to integrate systems thinking across your curriculum, or with faculty in other departments to integrate systems thinking across campus.

Resources for Teaching Systems Thinking

Watch the recording of the Teaching Systems Thinking Webinar
Developing Student Understanding of Complex Systems in the Geosciences includes teaching activities, assessment strategies, and more.
Using an Earth System Approach is a guide for earth science educators to design courses and present concepts from a systems perspective.
Systems Thinking & System Dynamics introduces several key concepts important to systems thinking and system dynamics that can be incorporated into an introductory geoscience course.
Experiencing Systemic Thinking in an activity intended to assist students in understanding social and natural systems through observing and commenting upon a natural system and a social system.
The Earth and Mind blog has many posts related to systems thinking.
The Earth and Mind II ( This site may be offline. ) special volume has a section about teaching systems, which includes 7 papers about aspects of teaching systems thinking in the geosciences, including complex systems, weather systems, geodynamic systems, modeling, and more.
How Geoscientists Think and Learn Kastens, K. et al, (2009), How Geoscientists Think and Learn, Eos Trans. AGU, 90(31), 265.
Box Diagrams to Assess Students' Systems Thinking about the Rock, Water and Carbon Cycles Sibley D. W., et al, Journal of Geoscience Education, v 55, no 2, p 138.
Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update - by Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers and Dennis L. Meadows.
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System - by Donella Meadows. This article illustrates how a systems approach can be used to create societal change.
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows. Chelsea Green Publishing. This book describes how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson.
The video The Man Who Stopped the Desert provides a good example of how complex systems operate.
Climate Interactive has a series of training videos on systems thinking called The Climate Leader
Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in Systems: A primer (D. Wright Ed.). White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
Harte, J. (1988). Consider a Spherical Cow: A course in environmental problem solving. Sausalito, CA: University Science Books.