Cameron Weiner

Activity 3: Introduction to Systems Diagrams part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Students learn that systems diagrams can be useful to simplify and visualize complex problems. Working individually and with partners, students identify the system elements missing from a pre-made school water ...

Activity 6: Creating a Systems Diagram part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
In this activity students learn the steps to create a systems diagram and then apply those steps to create a systems diagram of the wastewater system. Students are provided with additional written information that ...

Activity 7: Limitations of Systems Diagrams part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
This activity teaches students about the value of planning, knowing, and explaining the limitations of a systems diagram. Students are taught to follow the following four steps when assessing the limitations of a ...

Activity 10: Feedback Loops Applied part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Students apply the vocabulary and concepts from the Activity 9: Feedback Loop Introduction to assess and create earth science feedback loops with the LOOPY online modeling program. (Optional) The students then ...

Activity 9: Feedback Loops Introduction part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Students are introduced to feedback loop vocabulary and experiment with different relationships between reservoirs in simple feedback loops using LOOPY, a free, online modeling program.

Activity 5: Rates and Quantities Experiment part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
In this activity, middle school students time how long it takes, and measure the volume of water they use, to wash their hands. From these measurements, students calculate the rate at which water flows out of their ...

Activity 11: Modeling Interconnected Systems part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
This activity starts by introducing students to the ways industries in the United States use water and asking students to predict how much water is used to produce a variety of common goods. After presenting the ...

Activity 2: Systems Thinking Vocabulary Applied part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
This activity allows students to practice using systems thinking vocabulary by applying the terminology learned in Activity 1 to a school water supply system. An option to adapt this activity to the student's ...

Reflection: Multiple Sources in Systems Diagrams part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
In this activity, students reflect individually and as a class on the sources of information they used to create a systems diagram and why using multiple sources of information is important when creating systems ...

Activity 1: Systems Thinking Vocabulary Introduction part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
This 30 minute activity introduces systems and systems thinking vocabulary. The activity uses a bathroom sink to introduce simple systems vocabulary. At the end of the activity, students think about the importance ...

Activity 12: Modeling Interconnected Systems Part 2 part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Students research how a food is created, transported, and supplied to people. Once they understand the way the food is made, students create a LOOPY diagram that shows the different stages the ingredients and food ...

Activity 13: Finding solutions (Modeling Interconnected Systems Part 3) part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Students read a brief overview of water scarcity and what causes water scarcity. Then students watch two videos that show how water scarcity can impact people and the environment from two different angles. Using ...

Middle School Systems Thinking Activities Summary Page part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
This summary page contains links to 13 Systems Thinking activities and materials designed to be implemented in online middle school Earth Science courses.