Emma Chaitin and Jaimie Thibeault

The Massachusetts Opioid Epidemic; from injury to addiction.

This presentation explores the road from overprescription to a deadly disease through the use of several Systems Thinking models. We touch on the new, national conversation that is finally taking this epidemic head on and what steps are being taken to acknowledge and fix it.

Katherine Shapiro

The Flint Water Crisis

This work was done to analyze the cause and effects of the water crisis in Flint Michigan. The analysis includes exploring how poverty may have played a large role in causing the crisis. It also shows how the problems created will affect the town for years to come. 

Maya Hegde

Police Brutality: Is Race the Only Factor?

In our Journalism class at IACS, we were tasked to complete a current events systems thinking project where we spent time understanding a current event of our choice through in-depth research, the application of systems thinking tools, and the writing of an analytical paper. I chose to learn more about the growing issue of police brutality, and explore whether race was the most significant factor involved, a factor greatly emphasized by the media. For my final project, I represented this issue in the forms of an iceberg model and a feedback loop, visually explaining the multiple causes, factors, and reinforcing cycles present. These systems thinking tools served as visual representations that accompanied my analytical paper. 

Jack Panneton

Illegal Drugs

For my systems thinking model, I decided to use an iceberg model to represent the big increase in drug seizures, usage, and trafficking in big cities. I started out with the obvious increase of drugs in the community and then moved down the iceberg to talk about how it’s not just the lower class citizens living in the poor neighborhoods that are using drugs, it’s everyone. I also mentioned how there has been this stigma related to drug usage and because of that, other groups who are using drugs haven’t been targeted or identified for the usage of drugs.

Keegan Lennon

Climate Change

I am looking at climate change through the systems thinking tool of a stock and flow chart. I am looking specifically at a carbon emission reducing technology being developed by Professor William Mustain. The technology is going to be a critical part of enforcing Paris climate talk regulations within the coming decades.

Benjamin Silva and Melanie Thomas

Overprescription of Opioids Leading to Drug Abuse

We have decided to focus on the correlation between over-prescription of opioid painkillers to drug addiction. We created a connection circle on the topic, and then extracted specific feedback loops. The loops helped us go in depth about how each element affects society, overall rates of drug addiction, and mortality.

Ariana Schmidt

Rocket Modeling 1

Students modeled the flight of a paper rocket using stocks and flows.  Their models incorporated gravity, wind resistance and an initial launch force.  They then built rockets and predicted the height they would reach using their models.  They tested the rockets outside and recorded their flights.  Using data from the test, they went back and revised their models to match the observed results.  They used the updated models to get a better understanding of what happened during the test. 

Nick Kaffine and Issac Donkoh-Holm

Rocket Modeling 2

Students modeled the flight of a paper rocket using stocks and flows.  Their models incorporated gravity, wind resistance and an initial launch force.  They then built rockets and predicted the height they would reach using their models.  They tested the rockets outside and recorded their flights.  Using data from the test, they went back and revised their models to match the observed results.  They used the updated models to get a better understanding of what happened during the test.