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Science · Grade 12

Environmental Questions and Systems Thinking

Learners break real environmental questions into parts that evidence can answer and parts that values must decide, and name the Earth systems and disciplines each part involves. They then model environmental systems as stocks and flows, calculate residence times with units, trace reinforcing and balancing feedback loops, and finish by testing the assumptions that make a simple box model trustworthy or misleading.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 minutes
  • Systems thinking check: 11 questions
  • Ways to answer: fill in the blanks, choose an answer, estimate, draw a graph, highlight a text and label a picture
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What learners will discover

  • Classify parts of an environmental question as empirical (answerable with evidence) or normative (requiring value judgements), and identify the Earth systems and disciplines each part involves.
  • Model an environmental system with a boundary, stocks and flows, and use inflow minus outflow to predict whether a stock rises, falls or stays at steady state.
  • Calculate residence time as stock divided by throughflow with consistent units, and use it to compare how quickly systems flush or respond.
  • Identify reinforcing (positive) and balancing (negative) feedback loops from the signs of their causal links, and predict their effect on a system's stability.
  • State the assumptions of a simple stock-and-flow box model (defined boundary, well mixed, steady state, no internal sources or sinks) and explain when they make a prediction unreliable.

Lessons

  1. What kind of question is it? 7 steps3 practiceabout 20 min
  2. Stocks, flows and boundaries 8 steps5 practiceabout 25 min
  3. Residence time 8 steps4 practiceabout 25 min
  4. Feedback loops 8 steps4 practiceabout 22 min
  5. Testing a model's assumptions 7 steps5 practiceabout 23 min
  6. Systems thinking check 11 questions at the end

Keep exploring

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Guide for grown-ups