Empowering Students by Developing their Understanding of Complex Systems in an Increasingly Interconnected World

​

The field of complex systems has developed enormously in the past three decades. It has contributed to our understanding of a wide range of systemic phenomena across disciplines, such as ecosystem disruption, the spread of disease and segregation in social networks. However, human cognition is limited in its ability to process several parallel events that impact each other and in distinguishing between micro- and macro-levels in systems. Moreover, schools tend to focus on simple cause-and-effect chain explanations of phenomena, preventing their ability to teach about complex systems. We have approached this problem by developing a variety of learning environments that include advanced technologies, such as computer-based models that learners can explore, participate in and construct.