Systems thinking is the ability to describe and/ or visualise a part of a complex reality, express that part of reality as a model, understand the model as a system, use the model to explain the behaviour of the system, anticipate the behaviour of the system, and evaluate its impacts on sustainable development, identify potential points of, and types of interventions, generate options to act, assess their impacts in the frame of sustainable development, and decide whether further actions are necessary or not.
What is the aim?
To enable learners to explain the current and past behaviour of the system of the production of potato chips and the nutrition from potato chips.
Activities, tasks, and suggested learning methods
Activity 1 – Chips production TV news 1980 and 2020
- Make two groups of the learners exploring the potato chips production system. One team will work with the information from 1980 and the other with information of 2020.
- Each group should conduct a brief study about how potato chips were produced in the allocated year. The group may use the information from Step 2 and 3 and internet search or other sources. Learners may also apply the Interview methodand talk with parents or grandparents about potato chips when they were children. Possible guiding questions: available flavours, availability in stores, eaten at which occasions, size of packages, number of brands, reason for eating, etc.).Remember that we are talking about two moments of the system, one in 1980 and the other in 2020.
- Learners should try to identify balancing or reinforcing structures in the system. This could be done with a graphic representation (Behaviour over Time Graphs).
- The groups present an Explainer videoor podcast as a program called “TV News 1980” or “TV News 2020”. They may search for advertisements on the potato chip brands of those years and include it in their TV show.
- The videos and/or podcast should be presented to the group.
- In a plenary session, the learners should reflect on how the behaviour of the system of the potato chips production has changed from 1980 to 2020. They should present the change over time, showing how balancing and reinforcing structures have influenced the system.
- Formulate further leading questions.
Resources
- Potato World
http://www.fao.org/3/i0500e/i0500e03.pdf
- Largest Potato Producing Countries in the World 1960-2019
https://youtu.be/bPIMVgYQh3s
- Potato Chips Market Growth, trends and forecast (2020-2025)
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/potato-chips-market
- It is a Small World. Potato Grower.
https://www.potatogrower.com/2019/05/its-a-small-world#
Example
What was the experience of production and consumption of potatoes chips in the ‘80s?
I remember that we rarely had occasions when we ate potato chips. Of course, we bought them for birthday parties. I remember that my aunt bought a huge carton of chips on New Year eve. The carton of chips was as big as a carton of washing powder. Later, she used to upcycle these packages as wastepaper baskets by decorating them with leftover bits of wallpaper.
Also, large cartons of chips accompanied big occasions when friend and family got together such as the world soccer finals. My uncle and aunt bought a bag of chips as a snack when they received guests in the evening for playing cards together. I personally had chips sometimes on Saturday evenings as well, e.g., during certain films which I was watching on TV with my parents, such as “Wetten, dass …?” or “Dalli” or “Der große Preis” (famous shows on German television since the 1970s).
The chips came from the company Bahlsen, now Lorenz (Bahlsen). This was the only chips brand we could buy in shops. There was generally only one package size. The extra big boxes were sold at special times, such as New Year’s Eve or soccer events.
It was only in the early nineties when I was travelling to the United States (US), that I found out that chips can accompany a main dish. In the US it was served with a club sandwich or chips were eaten as Nachos with certain dips. When I came back to Germany, I realised that suddenly many of the chip I ate in the US, such as Pringles and Lays, were also being sold in Germany. Pringles chips were sold by Bahlsen before that. Therefore, the idea had reached Germany before the import of US branches started.
I do not remember any TV advertisements of potato chips those days. As far as I know, not many flavours were available. The most common was Hungarian style Pepperoni flavoured chips. I do not remember why they are named so, but I assume that they have the flavour of a dish called Hungarian Gulash, which is flavoured with pepperoni.
The first time I ate chips of different flavours was in the US or in England. In the US they had sour cream and onion as well as cheese flavours and in England there was salt and of course salt and vinegar. I think most chips were made of sunflower oil, as it was the most common oil available at that time. It was only later that palm oil was used and the ingredients were imported from other countries as these reduced costs in mass production.
Activity: Chips Digestion TV News 1980 and 2020
- Make two teams of the learners exploring the potato chips nutrition system. One team will work using information from 1980 and the other will work with information of 2020.
- Each group should conduct a small study about the normal diet and the consumption of the potato chips in the specified years. They may use the information from Steps 2 and 3 and search on the internet or use other sources. Remember that we are talking about two moments of the system in 1980 and 2020, it is important that the learners identify one or the two system structures balancing or reinforcing.The groups may present an Explainer video or podcast as a programme called “TV news 1980” or “TV news 2020”. They may search for advertisements on the potato chip brands of those years and include it in the programme.
- The videos and/or podcast is presented to the group
- In a plenary session ask the learners to reflect on how the behaviour of the system of the potato chips consumptionhas changed from 1980 to 2020. One important element is to present the change over time. This may be done with a suitable graphic representation that the learners like.
- Invite the learners to formulate further leading questions.
Resources
What does the pancreas do? – Emma Bryce
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-does-the-pancreas-do-emma-bryce#review
Hungry Planet: What the world eats (2013)
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2013/may/06/hungry-planet-what-world-eats
What the world eats.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/what-the-world-eats/
What children around the world eat in pictures (2019)
Further leading questions to the next step
- What situation will come up if we keep on going and doing like we did in the last years?
- How does this affect the general health of people?
- What is the environmental impact of this system?
- How is the social status of people influenced by the ways of consumption?
