Authors Katie Sanders, Allison Fortner, Kristin Gibson, and Alexa Lamm, along with co-author Kevan Lamm, recently published an article in the Journal of Agricultural Education piloting the use of hypothetical case scenarios in undergraduate agricultural and natural resource classrooms to enhance students’ systems thinking capacities. Systems thinking is a framework that focuses on the interconnected aspects of a system that are influenced by and influencing other parts of a system when a change is introduced. The systems thinking framework is intended to help students become more adept at problem solving for complex issues and at anticipating unintended consequences of change. This article is the first published in a series looking to increase systems thinking capacities related to sustainable seafood across agricultural and natural resource topic areas.
Hypothetical case scenarios are essentially choose-your-own-adventure scenarios, similar to the children’s book format. Participants in the study were asked to respond to three different case scenarios and choose a response option that most closely resembled what they might do in the situation. Below is a rendering of the hypothetical case scenario map for one case related to sustainable seafood.
For each case, participants could receive one of four potential options. After participants completed the case scenarios individually, they all participated in a focus group debrief. Participants explained how the hypothetical case scenario activity helped them learn how to evaluate and anticipate unintended consequences of their decisions, how to consider long-term impacts of their decisions, and understand the efficacy of different approaches to solving problems. As an educational activity, participants felt it was a positive experience that enhanced their critical thinking capacities, challenged them to think more deeply about social issues, and helped open their eyes to the complexity of problem solving.
The authors hope to expand research using hypothetical case scenarios for curriculum development across agricultural and natural resource areas, such as food security and climate change. To read more about the implications of the pilot research study, read the full article here. To use the hypothetical case scenarios in your classroom or other teaching activities, please contact alamm@uga.edu for more information and see the scenarios here.
