A quick way to demand high-level, systemic thinking: Behavior-Over-Time Graphs

Chris Lambert found an excellent way to demand high-level thinking from his students on a recent assignment for his AP European History students.  He had them make a Behavior-Over-Time Graph (or BOTG, as the systems thinking adepts call them) of Napoleon's rise to power and his brutal fall.

In a minute or two, you can create a task that would demand that your students synthesize, evaluate, and articulate information from any discipline -- I'm including some resources that you can download to use immediately.

What Chris did was very simple to implement - :  at the end of a series of recall and explanation questions, he posed them a simple task -- chart the rise and fall of Napoleon's power over time.  They had to include 10 events from their previous study of history.  "They all thought it would be easy," said Chris, "but it really forced them to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize the information.  It was tough."

The power of this activity comes when students explain their reasoning, and when two different interpretations are compared -- all you need to do is put these under a document camera:

Which is more accurate, and why?  What accounts for the difference?

You can have students track and evaluate any quantity that changes over time -- be creative:

• Study habits, grades, learning (for student self-evaluation)
• Courage, power, grace, popular support (of a fictional or historical character)
• Populations + resources
• Volume or tempo (in a musical performance)
• Economic indicators
• Teacher inspiration + frustration over the course of a school year

Here are some great resources you can use in your class:

Online, interactive WebEd modules you can play for your class to introduce Change Over Time.  This includes videos to show your class, and interactive activities, and sample lessons for K-12.

A readymade Notebook tool you can use to create behavior-over-time graphs with your whole class.  (It also includes a tool for creating stock-flow diagrams, and connection circles, two other great systems thinking techniques.)

Handouts to use in class:  a 4-panel handout for students to use, and a sheet with helpful tips to guide students when they think about how things change over time.