Student Use of Complex Systems Concepts when Describing Groundwater Movement and Point Source Pollution

Abstract

Comprehension of environmental topics and issues relies on understanding the nature of relationships between components of these issues that often range across domains of science, economics, politics and more. An understanding of the science that underlies these topics similarly depends on knowing how components of systems interact with each other, especially when changes in those components change the nature of the systems. Student use of this systems complexity perspective is the topic of this study. Before a study of groundwater movement, high school students were presented with investigations and activities that introduced them to the basics of how components of complex systems interact through feedback to produce unanticipated emergent properties. This qualitative study used student descriptions, diagrams, and comments to investigate how properties of complex systems were expressed during the study of groundwater movement involving point source pollution. A review of literature suggests the importance of systems thinking in science education. A review of research related to student use of such thinking suggests that there exists a lack of teaching and curriculum related to the topic and a corresponding lack of understanding of its use by students. This study introduced students to systems through instruction using games, video, and causal loops and then looked for evidence of systems thinking while analyzing groundwater movement during a unit of study using an established curriculum. In general, students did not interpret the movement of groundwater and associated pollutants using a complex systems perspective. Rather, most students relied on more linear, cause and effect relationships to describe the situations. Descriptions were often found to contain references to past experiences in order to explain these cause and effect relationships. The implication of this research expresses a need to investigate best practices for teaching about complex systems and for examining the role of understanding system behaviors in teacher training models. Systems thinking in the Next Generation Science Standards are a start in this direction.