Abstract
In this chapter, an argument is made for the importance of enabling secondary school students to build models for analyzing complex systems problems, to increase understanding of the myriad nonlinear feedback systems they will encounter as professionals and citizens. Secondary school students in some schools in the USA have been building such models for over 20 years. A sequence of natural resource depletion models is presented to demonstrate the types of system models secondary school students can and have built. Advantages such activities have for enhancing the mathematical analysis of problems normally outside the reach of the secondary school curriculum are discussed. It is argued that the time is ripe for secondary school students to experience instruction which, using current technologies, can provide a wealth of applications rich, real-world, relevant problems.
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.
Victor Hugo
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Notes
- 1.
Bidirectional flows are permitted but are not used in any examples in this paper.
- 2.
The DT of the simulation software is like the “dt” of a calculus integral, or more accurately like a Riemann Sum or Simpson’s Rule approximation of a calculus integral.
- 3.
Tables are not available in free Stella Online software, but one can read values from graph.
- 4.
The linear “effect of carrying capacity …” graphical shape, sketched as part of the definition by the modeler, is only one of many possible shape choices.
- 5.
- 6.
Models of the types shown in Figs. 3.4a, 3.5a, and 3.6a (and other similar student original modeling projects) require additional time (10 weeks) for secondary school students (aged 15–18) to research, build, debug, and explain (by writing technical papers and giving presentations and/or producing posters).
- 7.
A sample of over 20 secondary school student model diagrams, student technical papers explaining their models, and some student videos explaining their models can be found at: https://ccmodelingsystems.com.
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Fisher, D.M. (2021). Global Understanding of Complex Systems Problems Can Start in Pre-college Education. In: Leung, F.K.S., Stillman, G.A., Kaiser, G., Wong, K.L. (eds) Mathematical Modelling Education in East and West. International Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Modelling. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66996-6_3
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