A Systems Approach to Climate Education

Systems thinking is an important skill for students as they grapple with the complex, intersectional challenges that lie at the center of the climate crisis. Our approach to learning and teaching about the climate crisis is informed by systems thinking, and we try to bring a holistic, multi-layered perspective to the activities and resources we share with students and educators alike.

The benefits of a systems thinking approach to teaching about the climate crisis include:

It gives students a more effective way of interpreting the world around them.

It deepens the understanding of complex problems that are multidimensional, because both the problem and the solutions cut across multiple disciplines.

Learning becomes more student-centered, relevant, and cooperative.

It challenges students to work together to understand the causes of the climate crisis across disciplines.

It offers a means to blend natural systems with human, political, cultural or economic systems.

It encourages creative problem solving outside the usual subject-area focused curriculum. Students ask better questions, seek their own answers, and gain deep insights.

Making informed decisions, as individuals and a society, requires an understanding of the complexity of the systems that make up our planet.

It encourages students to examine interdependencies. This is especially important for societal challenges, such as the climate crisis, where many variables are changing, which affects other variables. The interactions of these variables are key to predicting the future.

Sources & Further Reading

  1. The Climate Change Playbook, by Dennis Meadows, Linda Booth Sweeney & Gillian Martin Mehers

  2. “Bringing Systems Dynamics to a School Near You; Suggestions for Introducing and Sustaining System Dynamics in K-12 Education,” by Debra A. Lyneis

  3. Working to develop Systems Citizens in K-12 Education — The Creative Learning Exchange

Associated Learning Activities

  1. The In and Out Game: The Shape of Change — The Creative Learning Exchange

  2. Water and Environmental Racism Teaching Activity - The Zinn Education Project | Designed by Matt Reed and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, Rethinking Schools

  3. Where Are the Climate Change Superheroes? Systems Thinking and Climate Activism in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest - The Zinn Education Project | Designed by Eric Fishman, Rethinking Schools.