Josie Koelsch, Marcos Escobar, Mayra Perez, Udita Agarwal
- Develop the “system stack” for your project a la the examples done in class (see photos posted under Week #10)
Since we are creating a custom game for each of our partners, this system stack is replicated for each of our partners.
- Read the article “Relevance of Systems Thinking” posted under Week #10
- For each of the systems principles discussed and described in the article, give one compelling example of how your project system describes or encapsulates that principle. Be specific!
Tenet 1: Interdependence
Three individual systems: Technology, education, nature centers. These systems exist and sustainably survive within the global marketplace. However, from our venture’s perspective, the Lehigh RiVR immersive learning, these are interdependent systems that help sustain our venture’s model. Lehigh RiVR immersive learning aims to improve environmental education through the distribution of custom designed immersive learning virtual reality games to nature centers. In this case, these otherwise individually surviving systems are mutually dependent on each other. They collectively satisfy our venture’s goal to make learning engaging, enjoyable, and most importantly effective.
Tenet 2: Holism
Our venture, Lehigh RiVR Immersive Learning as a larger system can only exist and be understood through its subsystems: Technology, improving education, and nature centers. Further, Lehigh RiVR Immersive Learning must understand how these three independent systems will function in relation to each other in order for Lehigh RiVR Immersive Learning venture to meet its objectives.
Our venture, within the context of improving education, will always provide a higher value proposition than its subsystems operating individually.
Tenet 3: Multifinality
- In our project, from the perspective of
- Informal learning STEM centres: our unique games attract more visitors and increases the centres visibility and outreach
- Professors: our unique games serve as an exciting topic to conduct research on and positively impact research community
- Funders/investors: our games are a novel and exciting project to invest money in and given the rapidly growing VR market, it’s likely to reap high benefits
- Learners playing our games: our games serve as an engaging, fun tool for them to learn more about the lehigh valley area and actually retain the knowledge learned
- Game developers/researchers: creating these games is a way for them to expand their skillset and knowledge and positively impact the community around them
Tenet 4: Equifinality
- To reach the end goal of making environmental education engaging and fun for learners of all ages, our venture employs the use of immersive virtual reality games through which learners can learn about their local environment through exciting ways like walking through a mine 100 years ago, playing puzzles, and experiencing a field trip in VR. To make our games accessible to a wide audience so that everyone can benefit from them, we’ve partnered with local nature centres and informal learning centers so that their visitors can access the games as well.
- While our venture is using VR games to achieve this end goal of making environmental education engaging, this end goal can also be achieved through several other means like making classrooms interactive through engaging activities such as discussions, field trips to the local area, and incorporating different mediums while teaching (like videos, podcasts, and hands-on activities). These means wouldn’t be as efficient as our venture though because these means have their limitations. For example, not every student is comfortable with speaking in classroom discussions. Similarly, students with disabilities/injuries or older learners may not be physically able to go to field trips in person to learn about the local environment.
- Thus, we believe that our venture serves as the optimal course of action in this rapidly developing, forward thinking world.
Tenet 5: Differentiation
When putting our project on the large-scale we notice that many of the components that make up our business system are interdependent. To start off, to name some of the interdependent components, we have our partners (informal learning center) who provide to us knowledge regarding the content within the game which is used by our developers in order to create the game. The game will be used at those centers with staff who will be trained by the team in order to fully utilize the technology to its extent. Within this short scope (not all) of our business system, we can see it is made up of very different and distinguishable components. When approaching these components from a holistic view, they all work together to form our system. Taking the game component for example, it’s distinct in the fact that it’s technology, however this technology is the product from whom our stakeholders wish to have in their institutions. And then we have our partners, they are the component that will make up our stakeholders, and thus provide funding to receive such a product (technology). Although distinct and different, these elements work together to create our major system which is our business model.
Tenet 6: Regulation
In order for the project to flourish and to be sustainable in the long run, there needs to be regulation in place that will keep everyone accountable, and thus provide a sense of organization, accountability and progress. One of the ways that our project demonstrates regulation can be seen through our weekly meetings with our mentors. We meet two days every week (Wednesday and Friday) where we discuss our recent progression towards the game and give each other feedback. We also have bi-weekly meetings with our partners on a regular basis to demonstrate the progress to them (our stakeholders). This feedback mechanism ensures a regulated timely delivery of updates which are showcased and thus keeps everyone accountable for their own work. Within the whole system spectrum, these are the steps taken to maintain the project afloat.
Tenet 7: Abstraction
Since our venture’s work often becomes incredibly specific as we try to code a specific function, the concept of abstraction becomes important for us to realize the broader purpose of each small task we do. While one project may specifically require us to model 20th century canal boats, this will fall under the abstraction of software development. Abstracting even further, we can realize that the purpose of software development is to incorporate the educationational content into games for our partners. Abstracting even further, we can realize that the purpose of incorporating this content is to teach visitors at the nature centers. At this point we have reached the core of our project: engaging educational experiences. This thinking allows us to understand the broader purpose of something as small as a canal boat image.
Tenet 8: Leverage Points
Key leverage points for our venture are our partnerships with local environmental education centers. If these centers are a part of a larger system, a partnership with one of them can be crucial to expanding our reach and forming more partnerships. For example, one of our current partners is Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center. This center is a part of the state park system. We can leverage our partnership with them to access the much larger state park system with many more potential partners. When this center obtains the finalized version of our games, we can utilize the interest surrounding their new educational tools and reach out to their state park network to form new partnerships.