Johnson, M. E., & Feng, Y. (2021, July), Connecting Critical System Thinking Principles with Hands-On Discovery Activities  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36837

\bibitem{asee_peer_36837}
  Johnson, M. E., \& Feng, Y. (2021, July), \emph{Connecting Critical System Thinking Principles with Hands-On Discovery Activities}
  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference.
  10.18260/1-2--36837

Mary E. Johnson and Yilin Feng.  "Connecting Critical System Thinking Principles with Hands-On Discovery Activities".  2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July.  ASEE Conferences, 2021.  https://peer.asee.org/36837 Internet.  25 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_36837}
  Mary E. Johnson and Yilin Feng.
  "Connecting Critical System Thinking Principles with Hands-On Discovery Activities".
  \emph{2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2021.
  https://peer.asee.org/36837 Internet.  25 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_36837
author = "Mary E. Johnson and Yilin Feng"
title = "Connecting Critical System Thinking Principles with Hands-On Discovery Activities"
booktitle = "2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access"
year = "2021"
month = "July"
address = "Virtual Conference"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/36837}
number = {10.18260/1-2--36837}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Graduate students in university-level aviation and aerospace management may choose to take a Critical Systems Thinking (CST) course. The objective of the CST course is to improve the student’s ability to solve complex problems by identifying and assessing the system from the systems thinking perspective. Traditional teaching methods of a CST course may include textbooks, case studies, and modeling. In a previous version of the CST course in this program, students read textbooks and cases, and then discussed the systems and archetypes. Research has shown that real-life experiences and other life experiences are essential to enable students to learn systems thinking principles. However, the previous teaching methods of the CST course in a classroom environment may not provide these experiences. In an attempt to provide to students with experiences where students interact with systems, the instructor of this CST course introduced hands-on discovery activities (HODAs) as a complement to the traditional teaching methods in 2017. HODAs are a way to provide students with opportunities to experience, explore, and analyze the systems they learned from the lectures in a classroom environment. 

This paper presents the system archetypes and principles that are included in the CST course, as well as a list of HODAs that are used to illustrate system archetypes and principles. This paper discusses the objective, preparation, and implementation of one HODA used in the CST course. Student feedback is used to discuss the relationship of the HODA to the lecture topics and to evaluate the performance of the HODA. The changes made by the instructor since 2017 are summarized. In addition, due to the COVID-19 safe practices guidelines, changes to the HODAs are made. An alternative open-ended project is used where student teams develop and present systems models of complex systems in the aircraft and airline industries. This project is outlined and discussed. 

AU  - Mary E. Johnson
AU  - Yilin Feng
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Connecting Critical System Thinking Principles with Hands-On Discovery Activities
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/36837
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--36837
ER  -