Welcome back to the eighth installment (of 12) of an exploration of Learning Environment. In my last post, we discussed the impact of expert partners—professional and community collaborators who can transform a classroom from a disconnected silo into a hub of community exploration.
But even when we bring partners into the classroom, we as educators should wonder: How can we help students see both the forest and the trees?
One way to do so is by leaning into Systems Thinking, a lens that allows a student to look at a single moment or thing in time—a storm drain, a historical deed, or a price hike—and visualize the sprawling, interconnected nervous system that supports it.
I also saw systems thinking, which essentially asks students to become familiar with the “trees” and the “forest,” as a means to address a common critique of content-centered science (or any subject matter) education—namely, that material is often taught in a disjointed and disconnected manner. Consequently, without being taught the interrelated nature of a particular subject’s body of knowledge and how it is beautifully intertwined (the forest), students may view a course’s content as little more than a series of unrelated facts and vocabulary words that must be memorized (the trees).
— Learning Environment, page 72
In a traditional classroom, classes are often taught in fragments. Students study one thing on Monday, another piece of content on Tuesday, but rarely trace the veins that connect them. When we teach this way, we inadvertently ask students to spend their time memorizing “the trees”—isolated facts and vocabulary words—without ever realizing they are standing in a forest.
In a deeper learning environment, students see the interconnectivity of the world they inhabit. In my own classroom practice, I often used New York City’s sewers as both a hook and a means to teach through a systems-thinking lens. When my students and I explored (literally peering) into the sewers' steps from our school building or touring the innards of a wastewater treatment plant, we entered a world where we were forced to ask how disconnected parts were related to an overarching whole.
We asked questions like,
Where does this water go when it rains?
Why does a sewer interceptor blockage on our street lead to street flooding three blocks away?
How does the plastic bottle on this curb impact the chemistry of the harbor around us?
And while I used a systems-thinking lens in my science classroom, this approach can also be a tool for understanding the hidden architecture of any discipline.
In a History or Social Studies classroom, “the tree” might be a single historical deed or a specific neighborhood boundary line. By investigating a single document, students can be led to see “the forest” of systemic redlining, generational wealth gaps, or the machinations of public policy.
In an English classroom, “the tree” might be a single, recurring word in a text or a character’s choice. Examining that word more deeply might reveal “the forest” of societal norms, power structures, and cultural motifs.
Even a price hike at a local bodega or grocery store is a “tree” that, when followed, can expose the global “forest” of supply chains, international labor rights, and economic policy.
By focusing on these “trees”—the localized, student-relatable entry points to our curriculum—we provide an opportunity to take a path toward understanding the “forests” of municipalities, economies, and social structures.
This shift to a systems thinking approach can also lay the groundwork for community exploration or advocacy. The point being that when a student understands the system, they no longer see a flooded street, a depleted local library, or rising rents as an unavoidable accident; they see them as failures of a specific system that they now have evidence to challenge, change, and potentially improve.
You don’t need to leave your school’s neighborhood to adopt a systems-thinking approach. Indeed, you can set the gears of systems awareness in motion tomorrow:
The Local System Audit: Choose one ubiquitous object in your neighborhood (a street light, a public trash can, or a fire hydrant). Ask students to investigate its “life cycle”: Who installed it? Who maintains it? What happens to the neighborhood if it disappears?
“Follow the Flow” Diagramming: Have students create a visual map of a local resource. Trace water from the reservoir to the tap, or follow a piece of clothing from the factory to the closet.
The Stakeholder Circle: When discussing a community challenge, ask students to identify every human “gear” in the system: residents, workers, business owners, and local officials. This helps them see the social “forest” supporting the physical “tree.”
Site Visits to the “Engine Room”: Whenever possible, visit the places that keep a community’s pulse steady. Whether it’s a local farm, a recycling center, or a town hall, these visits turn abstract concepts into tangible realities.
Jigsaw It: Too much content to cover for students to become experts on an entire system? Break the system apart, assign students (or groups) a specific element of the system, and expect them to become experts before presenting what they’ve learned to their peers. When finished, your class will have gained insider expertise on one “tree” and a contextual understanding of the “forest” that supports it.
The Impact: Systems thinking transforms students from passive observers of the goings-on in their community (and world around them) into informed citizens. It shifts their gaze, allowing them to see the invisible infrastructure influencing their lives and the background knowledge and confidence to interact with it. And when systems thinking, teaching, and course design are done right, students may discover that adjusting one small “tree” can create a ripple effect across an entire forested landscape.
Does your curriculum feel like a collection of disconnected fragments? Do you want to help your students see the hidden architecture of the world they live in?
At Fox EduConsulting, I partner with educators to design interdisciplinary units that leverage systems thinking to tackle real-world challenges. Let’s work together to help your students navigate the world and find their place within the systems that shape their future.
Coming Up Next: In post 9, “The Culture Shock of the School Bell,” we’ll explore Interdisciplinary Instruction—breaking down walls between classrooms to create a synergistic, symbiotic learning experience.
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Dr. Jared Fox, is an education expert and the founder of Fox EduConsulting. Through his consulting practice, Jared helps schools and organizations craft authentic, engaging, and comprehensive learning environments - with a specialty working at the intersection of science, the environment, and social justice.
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