Abstract for: Teaching with Loops That Matter in the classroom

Loops That Matter is a powerful tool embedded within Stella to measure and visualize loop dominance progression in system dynamics models. To extract the most from this tool in a learning context, we require educational approaches that teach how to integrate its use into existing learning processes. In this practitioner application, we demonstrate the curriculum we developed for teaching feedback loop dominance analysis and leverage point identification using Loops That Matter. We lay out the theory behind our approach, and discuss the impacts of the curriculum on Masters' students from the System Dynamics Group, University of Bergen. Our preliminary results show improvements in the performance of the students who were exposed to these tools via these new teaching methods. We further discuss the lessons we learned in the classroom from carrying out the developed curriculum.