A multitude of global challenges that society grapples with, including climate change, social injustices, and economic disparities, persist largely due to the shortcomings of effectively responding to complex systems. In this article, we consider adopting systems literacy as a comprehensive educational approach to navigate in complex systems. We…

One hundred years ago, Paul Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy independently proposed that living organisms interact with their environment through systems. In the century that has followed, systems thinking and modeling have grown in tandem with discovery of the vast complexity of the universe at microscopic through astronomic levels. As our…

Mapping provides an entry point for improving teacher and student understandings of inquiry and systems thinking. The authors recognize their potential for structuring inquiry learning, developing culturally responsive and sustaining classrooms, and engaging teachers and students in deep discussions about the complexity of life. In this article,…

A system of climate learning includes students, educators, administrators, educational leaders, community members, and others across different contexts and from diverse lived experiences. As people begin to foster climate learning within these systems, the work of drawing people together in this work can seem daunting. However, the lessons from…

Recently, there have been calls to integrate systems thinking approaches into chemistry education in order to strengthen students' conceptual understanding, build their problem-solving capabilities, and prepare them to make informed, ethical decisions about globally relevant issues, such as sustainability. Unfortunately, implementation of systems…

A laboratory experiment was developed to introduce systems thinking and green chemistry concepts through the synthesis of the antidepressant and smoking cessation aid, bupropion hydrochloride. The traditional synthesis has several issues from a green chemistry perspective: it uses the toxic solvents N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) and dichloromethane…

Approaching elective courses and courses on special topics in Chemistry can seem daunting at times, given the varied backgrounds of the students, together with the broad nature of topics. Often, institutions may give incentives for creating sustainability related course offerings, but knowing where to start and how to organize the information…

Anchored in the work of Fanon (1952), Mbembe (2019), and Spivak (1988), I take an autoethnographic journey that traces colonization and the subtle forces of coercion that exist in the academy and society, particularly in the US. I draw on Holland et al. (1998) to position myself in a figured world, a unique constellatory network of histories,…

Biological systems exhibit strong dynamic variations; for example, a system may have a tendency towards either a steady state, periodic behaviour or chaotic oscillations. These findings, explained by dynamic systems theory, have allowed researchers to formally relate a wide variety of systems, such as the theory of rumour propagation, glucose…

This activity helps students conceptualize and apply systems theory principles to a family communication context by having them create personal whole systems using paper, string, index cards, and the floor. In completing this exercise, students see how their subsystems interact and emerge as something greater than the sum of their parts. They also…

Space exploration is intrinsically interesting to young learners. Children gaze at the stars and marvel at what it might be like to live "out there!" With the July 2020 launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission, and its landing in 2021, there is no better time to capitalize on engineering and science in the news. This mission is…

This paper addresses the ways that the complexity theory can be practiced in mathematics class to encourage students' participation in learning of the mathematical concepts. The paper starts by introducing the theory and its associated attributes which are necessary to organize the class for the individual and collective understandings of the…

Business schools have a responsibility for educating global citizens capable of understanding and addressing the major societal challenges of the 21st century. However, working on complex societal problems within business school curricula remains a challenge. This teaching brief presents a learning project that helps instructors introduce…

Children develop and learn within dynamic contexts, yet the simplifying assumptions of common statistical methods often relegate such complexity to unexplained error. This chapter discusses ideas from the dynamic systems literature, which focuses on the interplay within and between components of complex systems, such as individuals and their…

Systems thinking encompasses a set of skills for understanding, analyzing, and working with systems consisting of multiple interconnected elements and exhibiting emergent properties. Such systems are all around us, and helping students to develop such skills is central to equipping them to tackle professional and societal challenges. While the…