Responses to Fortnightly Challenge - Mar 16-29, 2024

Hello everyone! Thanks to everyone who shared responses.

We loved the Loopy model created by Reyansh Jani of Grade 5, JNS in response to last fortnight's challenge! It was voted as the best response among submissions. Reyansh says-

I understood that sometimes good intention may have bad consequences and might backfire on the plan made for good due to the greed of people. My loopy model shows how good uses of plastic unintentionally continuously harm nature.

You can play with Reyansh's model by clicking here.

Details of the Challenge

First, we have a teaser..

Imagine a town overrun by venomous cobras, causing fear among its residents. The government decides to tackle the problem by offering a reward for every dead cobra presented to them. Initially, this seems like a perfect solution, but soon, the town faces an unexpected turn of events, leading to even more cobras than before. What could have gone wrong? What is your guess?

Watch the below video after you make your guess.

Unintended consequences like in the above example are unfortunately common. A simple and effective way to visualize 'cause and effect' loops like this is to use a tool called Loopy. Watch the below video to look at how we modeled the Cobra effect in Loopy and click here to play with the model.

The Challenge- make a Loopy model of your own and share it!

When we make decisions, sometimes things don't go as planned and unexpected things can happen (these unexpected things are called 'unintended consequences'). It's like setting off a row of dominoes; sometimes they fall in a way we didn't think they would.

Does the man pushing the domino to his left realize the consequence of his action?

Systems thinking is like stepping back to look at the whole picture, like looking at all the dominoes from above, not just one. Causal loop diagrams are special drawings that help us see how different things affect each other, kind of like drawing arrows between the dominoes to show which ones knock down others. This helps us make better choices by understanding how everything is connected.

Here's the challenge- Study any interconnected situation you see in your own life or learn about something and and make a Loopy model and share it through this form. Remember that after making the Loopy model- you will need to save the link by clicking on the 'save link' button on the right hand side of the screen. We recommend using a link shortening service like bit.ly. One example of a situation in your own life could be that you avoid studying a subject because it seems too difficult, and thus fall behind, and falling behind makes it even more difficult!

There are many case studies of unintended consequences you can find on the internet. So check out something that interests you. Here is a list of 30 Unintended Consequences Of Global Events That Shaped Where Humanity Is Today | Thought Catalog if you want to check this out.