Systems Thinking Approaches For Solving Complex Problems and Building Bridges in Schools and Communities

Organization: Avera Research Institute and University of South Dakota School of Medicine

Presenter Name and Title: Dr. Arielle Deutsch, Research Scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Although aspects of “systems thinking” has been part of Indigenous ways of knowing and learning for millennia, systems thinking is still relatively new in Western populations for solving problems. This presentation introduces one form of systems thinking and problem-solving – system dynamics and group modeling – that can be used to build bridges and collaboratively solve problems through consensus building in groups that include both systems and linear thinkers. These approaches can be taught and practiced by both youth and adults alike. This presentation will introduce systems dynamics concepts and approaches, discuss their own experience with using system dynamics in Indigenous spaces (as a non-Indigenous person), and discuss the ways that systems thinking has been used in solving community issues, and in educational curricula that schools around the country have adopted to raise a new generation of systems thinkers.