june 2002cle conference getting the beat tim joy la salle high school milwaukie, oregon...
TRANSCRIPT
June 2002 CLE Conference
Getting the Beat
Tim Joy
La Salle High School
Milwaukie, Oregon
The evolution of a systems class from analysis to synthesis
June 2002 CLE Conference
Thoughts about Northwest Rhythms
• About La Salle High School• Progression of the class
• Gender, politics
• Leading thoughts about Rhythms• Resources for the course• What we actually did
June 2002 CLE Conference
Lower Willamette River
I grew up here.
My parents still live in the second house they bought in SE Portland.
It is a place of fish, trees, road, cars, parks, and political madness.
June 2002 CLE Conference
The Johnson Creek Watershed
June 2002 CLE Conference
Getting from A to B
What does road building do to a riparian zone?
June 2002 CLE Conference
Totally biblical, dude!Farms and early residences to the 20’s.First road and residential push in 30’s and 40’s.•Residents call for flood control in 30’s. Why•US Army Corps makes improvements that create worse flooding.
June 2002 CLE Conference
How Moses nearly destroyed Portland
Most powerful man in American comes to Stumptown
Portland puts the kibosh on similar plans in the mid 1970’s when it decided to NOT build the proposed Mt. Hood Freeway: would have placed a six lane freeway from the Willamette River to connect with Hwy 26 east of Gresham.
Generally, we ought to imagine this film in the context of our own Portland life—what happens when a road is widened? There are plans to widen and straighten Johnson Creek Boulevard from 34th to 82nd (at least some stretches of it) to where it meets roughly with I-205). What are some things we ought to imagine here?
June 2002 CLE Conference
Watersheds in the United States
June 2002 CLE Conference
Finding your own watershed
June 2002 CLE Conference
New Hampshire
This is where we are now.
It rains like hell sometimes.
It grows some amazing trees and writers.
June 2002 CLE Conference
Piscataqua-Salmon Falls
• Piscataqua-Salmon Falls
• Watershed Profile
• Watershed Name: Piscataqua-Salmon Falls• USGS Cataloging Unit: 01060003
• Environmental Websites Involving this Watershed
• Visit the Envirofacts Warehouse to retrieve environmental information from EPA databases on Air, Community Water Sources, Water Dischargers, Toxic Releases, Hazardous Waste, and Superfund Sites Geographic searches include zip code, city, EPA Region, or county.
• Citizen-based Groups at work in this watershed (Provided by Adopt your Watershed)
• River Corridors and Wetlands Restoration Efforts
• National Watershed Network (provided by Conservation Technology Information Center)
June 2002 CLE Conference
METRO’s 2040 Plan for Portland, Oregon
June 2002 CLE Conference
Look at this line for a bit
Time for a test!
Tell a story about this systems principle:If you don’t solve a
problem, the system will solve it for you
June 2002 CLE Conference
If ya wanna kill it, start a systems course
• 1997: System Dynamics:– “It’s a computer course.”
• 1999: Global Dynamics– “Sounds like there’s nothing we can do about it”
• 2000: Ethics and Urban Systems – “Sounds too serious.” “Sounds hard.”
• 2001: Northwest Rhythms– “Is this a dance class?”
June 2002 CLE Conference
There is nothing permanent except change.Heroclitus
Northwest Rhythms provides students with the tools to understand how all things change through time. Students consider patterns of change and, in so doing, deepen their understanding of our world’s inherent connections. Though the focus is decidedly in the Northwest, these principles of change help students understand the broader human condition.
Northwest Rhythms focuses on stories that convey the full human drama: who we are, where we live, what we do, what is good, and a host of other eternal tales that engender ethical discussions. Using a partly narrative approach and a partly reasoned approach, students learn new methods of thinking about their world.
Students write future scenarios, play simulations, discuss ideas and questions, form creative teams, engage in policy debates, seek moral resolutions, formulate models to help them think, read from multiple fields of study, and ultimately compose a semester synthesis for exhibition.
Northwest Rhythms: understanding a world of change
June 2002 CLE Conference
Your notebooks will be due every other Tuesday
• Behavior-over-time graphs• News articles with diagrams• Maps and models• LOTS of closed loop exercises• Stories and thoughts• Assessments of models and own efforts• Glued in charts, maps, lists, diagrams,
graphs
June 2002 CLE Conference
Writing scenarios
Compose two, one-page narratives that describe two very different scenes from the perspective of 2040: that is, you imagine first that things have happened just as you imagined and, second, imagine them happening in a much different way. Then you tell two stories each of a different scenario.
For example, describe a drive from Mt. Tabor to the Sellwood Bridge, a walk through Reed College, the new construction and added taxes that result from 50% loss in canopy. In the second scenario, describe the same drive, the construction situation and tax consequence that might occur if the canopy recovers and fills in to 1970 levels.
June 2002 CLE Conference
A Few Key Models
• Population and a resource– Damping effect of that diminishing resource on
population
• Sim Trees• Drug/bathtub• Small simulations about stocks/flows,
multipliers/table functions - mostly to tell the story– Show “pop res” and “good teaching”
June 2002 CLE Conference
June 2002 CLE Conference
Some other things we did
• Fishbanks - Oregon fishing; how is this like logging or housing or road building
• Map drawing - what goes where? How do I know I have enough?
• LOTS of closed loop exercises
• Ambassadors to other teachers - Beer Game
June 2002 CLE Conference
Turn me off
Show these nice people some slides