The use of system dynamics for energy and environmental education
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Published version
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The use of system dynamics as a learning tool for developing sustainable energy strategies and environmental education has advanced in recent years with the availability of new modelling software and webtools. Among the existing models, we highlight the online 2050 Calculators, which aim at simulating scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions, energy planning, sustainable land use, and food consumption. The objective of this study is to assess the available calculators and their contribution to an interdisciplinary education via systems thinking. We carried out a review of the existing models worldwide and ran some of the tools with students from three different postgraduate programmes at master’s level at Imperial College London (United Kingdom) and IFP School (France), whilst also assessing their individual views afterwards. The assessments were conducted once a year during three subsequent years: 2019, 2020, and 2021. The results are discussed under the epistemology of critical pedagogy, showing that the use of webtools, such as the 2050 Calculators, can significantly contribute to the
students’ environmental awareness and political engagement, providing important lessons about the use of system dynamics for policy and science education.
students’ environmental awareness and political engagement, providing important lessons about the use of system dynamics for policy and science education.
Date Issued
2022-01-28
Date Acceptance
2021-12-02
Citation
International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2022, 19 (5), pp.1-31
ISSN
2365-9440
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
1
End Page
31
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
Volume
19
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Identifier
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/staff/educational-development/networks-and-events/education-week/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352198285_The_Use_of_System_Dynamics_for_Energy_and_Environmental_Education
Grant Number
TBC PO Number
Subjects
Critical pedagody
Paulo Freire
System dynamics
Calculators
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Imperial College London
Article Number
ARTN 5
Date Publish Online
2022-01-28