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Saving the earth one byte at a time
Systems thinking in museums
A couple of weeks ago I criticised the Exploratorium for a lack of interactive exhibits addressing systems thinking. Since then I’ve been dredging the memory (biological and digital) for some examples. Being able to comprehend complexity, think across scales, and understand complex relationships is a vital part of sustainability education. Here’s some examples: Plant system […]
Posted in: Computing for Sustainability, museum
Learning from having achievements plummet
August 10, 2008
In one of the first classes of software engineering for the semester we get students to do an “egg and straws”. The challenge is to build a structure to prevent an egg breaking when dropped to concrete from shoulder height. The only resources available are 6 drinking straws and 20cm of tape. I have a […]
Posted in: Otago Polytechnic, softwareEngineering
Software Engineering meets Living Campus
August 10, 2008
We’ve got two full streams of Software Engineering this year. We teach a brand of software engineering that attempts to integrate agile with structure: Agile development framework (link to emerging wikibook). As part of our drive to find opportunities to integrate sustainability into teaching, we’re giving the groups the challenge of developing an information infrastructure […]
Interacting but don’t expect to explore systems thinking
July 30, 2008
The Exploratorium in San Fransico is a truly amazing place. I lost count of the interactive exhibits that were doing a fantastic job of engaging kids (and their adults) in science (click on image for slideshow of interactive exhibits). What surprised me though, is the almost complete lack of complex systems. With about five exceptions, […]
Working for the earth 5 til 9
July 29, 2008
I swim regularly with a triathlete who is also a policeman. He works strange hours, some weeks he’s on days, others he calls in for swim on the way home in the early morning. These strange hours are because “crime never sleeps”. Something else that never sleeps is environmental and social degradation. The fight for […]
Computing for Sustainability 
August 10, 2008
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