Abstract for: Modeling Dynamic Systems: Lessons for a First Course

“Modeling Dynamics Systems: Lessons for a First Course” (third edition) provides a set of materials that enable educators at the secondary and college levels to teach a one-semester or one-year course in System Dynamics modeling. These lessons are also useful for trainers in a business environment. Developed for beginning modelers, the lessons contained in this book can be used for a core curriculum or for independent study. The lessons include some of the classic System Dynamics problems (population change, resource sustainability, drug pharmacokinetics, spread of an epidemic, urban growth, supply and demand, and more). Feedback analysis is integral to the lessons. Guidelines for an independent project and an outline for a technical paper explaining the creation process and structure of the final model, together with scoring guides for both the model and the paper, are included. Participants in the workshop will have a chance to build some simple models (participants should bring laptops) and gain a sense of the progression leading to a more sophisticated model. Student work will be demonstrated and can also be viewed at www.ccmodelingsystems.com. New materials in the third edition (oscillations, transfer of loop dominance, mapping systems in the news,…) of this book will be presented.