SEEQS Portfolio Defense

Thinking Systemically - ʻEleu

My Understanding

To me, Thinking Systemically means to be able to see the bigger picture in my actions and the actions of others. When Thinking Systemically, you can make connections and find solutions based on what you observe and gain knowledge from outside perspectives. For example, imagine bringing a new species into Hawaii to be bred. If you were to do that, you would need to think about how that animal that you may bring affects the whole ecosystem on the island. If you think about the whole picture and put into idea about all the possible consequences about that animal coming to the island, then you are succeeding in Thinking Systemically.

An example of not Thinking Systemically would be not doing any research when bringing a new species to the island, which has happened before. In the past, people brought mongooses to Hawaii to get rid of the rat problem that was here. Rats were eating the eggs and babies of native birds. When they brought the mongoose here, they realized that they had made a terrible mistake. They learned that rats are actually Nocturnal while mongooses are Diurnal. The problem on the islands ended up getting even bigger. It turned out that the mongooses also ate some of the native birds. Since the rats and the mongooses woke up at different times, the monooses didn’t get rid of the rats. The mongoose started to make the problem worse. This is a real life counterexample of Thinking Systemically.

My Growth

An example of Thinking Systemically is my Financial Adulting project. I chose this project because as I am getting older, I am going to be spending, earning, and learning more about money. I am going to need to know about what choices to make. This project has helped me become aware of those systems and begin to learn them. In this project, we were assigned partners and were given the situations that most adults had. We pretended that we had jobs, earned a yearly salary, had a family, bought whatever we needed, and calculated the costs of all the things we bought.

Screenshot of Financial Adulting Slides

Screenshot of Financial Adulting Slides

As we started this process of organizing our yearly income for me and my partner, we went over the necessary needs for a family. We needed to get insurance for our health and all the other insurances and we needed to find a place where we could live. For me and my partner, I had the job of a veterinarian, and she had the job of a pilot. Together, we made a great amount of money. As I started to research all the different payments that are needed, I discovered a system. This was the project that made me discover the skill of Thinking Systemically.

Before the Financial Adulting project, I had very little knowledge about spending money. I still do not know if this project is making me more aware of the choices that adults are now making. I was unaware of the choices that my family were making and had no idea that money was THAT complicated. Learning about the choices the people make with their money and the reasons why they make these choices has expanded my mind and made me aware that the system that the world has is so large and complicated.

A financial budget of a household is a system. It makes me feel a little bad for all of the parents and adults for needing to make all these complicated choices with money. It's a lot of work. Learning about money makes me want to stay younger longer and enjoy not spending money, but I remind myself that I will eventually need to use the skills as I become an adult. I now know how to face the large problems and zoom in and out of them and learn pieces of each. I can make those pieces and put them together in my mind so I can have a full picture. I have grown a lot during this project.

After working on this project the whole world seems bigger. I am able to get a bigger picture about all the different choices that adults need to make. This project has expanded my mind about Financial choices and their effect they have on everyone like me. I am happy that I have learned about the choices that my family is making. Now, with the things I have learned, and with the help of thinking systemically, I can learn about more ways to make better choices.

In 6th and 7th grade, I had almost no knowledge about the skill of Thinking Systemically. When I look through my SSPR I see that there was none that I did in 6th and 7th grade about Thinking Systemically. The reason for this was because I was kind of avoiding trying to understand the skill. I had a rough time thinking about how I had used those skills in real life and in my assignment. I believe I avoided this skill in 6th and 7th grad because I felt as if I didn't find any interest in learning it. I didn't see the idea of there being systems in the world that need to be looked at. This can be proven by how I had no SSRs done with this skill in 6th and 7th grade.

Another way that I can prove that I didn't really pay any attention to the skill of Thinking Systemically in 6th grade was when I did my Role Play class in 6th grade with Mr. A. The whole time I was in that class and we a\were discussing what would happen if we made this choice over another, I didn't realize that in that project I was Thinking Systemically. In that class, we talked about the consequences of how the loss of sandalwood in Hawaii led to water poisoning and other bad side effects. I wasn't even aware I was using Thinking Systemically.

In 8th grade, I believe I have become more aware of this skill and see it in my everyday life. I am learning more and more about the world and the crazy news that is going around. An example of how I have seen this skill in everyday life is how the pandemic has affected so much of my life in 2020 and 2021. With the pandemic, I was able to finally see my thinking process in Thinking Systemically. I noticed how this pandemic was a world problem. I started to look into what was happening around the world to see how the pandemic was globally affecting the earth. Then I looked closer, I saw how it was affecting the island of Hawaii. Tourists were being closed out of the island more and more. Therefore, the Island is making less and less money. I looked even closer, I saw how it was affecting my family.

We were a family who loved to travel and explore different places around the world and see all of our family members. Now, all those events have been taken away for the most part. When I look at myself, and think about how the Pandemic is affecting me personally, I think about how the Pandemic has taken away the events of me playing with all of my friends. It has taken away a lot of the fun experiences I have had watching movies and going to the waterpark. Then I look at the things that the pandemic has given me.

As a result of the pandemic, I was able to get more in the habit of working out. I was able to experience online learning and face to face through masks. I was able to make many new friends and make so many amazing memories. The pandemic was a global crisis, I was lucky enough for it to not to affect me or my family personally. When I look at this whole entire system that connects with all these different places and people, I realize that it went there when I was in 6th and 7th. I appreciate what I have learned and grown in, in Thinking Systemically. In some ways, I thank the pandemic for helping me grow in that skill.

What Project Helped Me Grow

In my Algebra class this year, we were learning about how money grows over time. We were assigned jobs that people have in real life and the money that they earned would be given to us and we would have to try to spend our money correctly by making different financial choices.

For this project, I had to think about the world around me and it's rules. I had to discover and learn about what ways I could spend my money and the ways that my parents spend their money. Overall, my knowledge in money has grown a lot this quarter. In this project, I had to learn and find out about all these different patterns (of how money is earned and is paid) and uses of money, then use those patterns to make connections with the real world. With those connections, I made solutions.

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For example, before I learned about saving accounts, I thought the lottery was the best way to make a ton of money. But I was zoomed in to the tiny little space I had from my limited knowledge of money. Since I wasn't really Thinking Systemically here or really even aware of the whole money system itself, this was a perfect counter example for how to use the skill. The opposite of Thinking Systemically for me is having a very narrow mindset and the complete opposite of trying to learn new things about your surroundings, the world, yourself, and your community. This relates to how I thought the lottery is the best way to make money. I had a narrowed mindset on how I should be making money when I grew up.

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Soon, I discovered that there is a system and process about spending and making money.

Through this project, I got to roleplay being a parent earning and spending money. I had to do research on different ways to spend my money wisely.

With my partner, Jasmine, we are able to think about plans we need to do to get the best outcome of our life. For example, we were asked if we wanted to do anything with our money like putting it into a retirement fund, or a savings account, or taking out a loan. We were confused and started doing research on the amount of money we would get from each outcome.

I started realizing that there were 2 options. Play it safe and go with earning little money over time, or take the risk and spend a lot of money for a small chance to get a lot of money. Then I remembered how I was talking to my dad about how it's better to play it safe and don't take any risks when it comes to money. With that voice in my head and the math that I had done, I was able to bring all those pieces together and come up with a solution for me and my partner. If I look at where I was now in my mindset of money and the system there is, I would see that my knowledge of the system of money has expanded so much and has learned so many new things.

When I look at where I started with the mindset of “the lottery is the best way to get money” and I was stuck with that mindset when I grew up, I would be putting in a lot of my money into taking risks like lottery and stock and basically just crossing my fingers to see if I get any profit. The risk involved with taking a risk with your money is another whole different system. If you were to buy stock and later get no profit from it, you would basically be needing to work even more to make up that money that you gave away. And to add, you would also need to be catching up with your necessary payments like taxes and fees with money that you don't have. So if you are to take a risky choice with your money, you must be sure of the system and ripple effect that might occur when taking those risks.

How This Project Relates To the Skill

One way that this certain project is an example of Thinking Systemically is how it shows all the things I have left to learn in this world. The biggest part for me personally in Thinking Systemically is that you are going to be figuring out new things. That is what this project has helped me do. When I am learning about different requirements on how to spend money, I am fascinated and want to learn more. I tend to look at different perspectives and ask different questions. That is how I think systemically.

Another example is how I Think Systemically when I am confused. While doing this project, I was confused on many levels. I had no idea what the total cost of insurance was for my family, I had no idea what the average cost of all our needs were, and I was confused on whether we were going to be okay living with the money we had. But the thing that I did to get out of it, was to go to my parents and ask what they would pay for a certain thing. I would then use that information that they gave time and put it into my specific group with Jasmine. I compared and contrasted. Slowly, I found out what was going to be the complete conclusion for all of our decisions. And asking those different questions helped me think systemically and succeed in this project.

One tool that I use to help me think systemically is to read different articles about what I am learning about. This helps me because learning about different parts of a bigger idea can help me make more connections. Another tool I use is system mapping. System mapping helps me organize the consequences of my choices, therefore helping me think systemically. One example of when I didn't think systemically was when I decided not to work out for a whole week. I did not realize that a week without working out will make me look bigger. I ended up making a choice without even thinking about the outcomes and connections it would have.

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This skill is important to me because it will make me a person who can always think systematically about the world. It is a skill that once I master, I never lose it. This skill will help me in so many assignments for my future and even help me with sports. This skill is definitely one of my favorites.

Another example of when I did the exact opposite of Thinking Systemically, was in 6th grade when I didn't realize that the choice I had made wasn't good for the environment at all. This happened when I was using plastic bags frequently. At the time, I was fully aware of the damage that plastic bags could do to the environment. Not only pollute and trash the environment, but make our home less pretty. This is showing that as I get older, I am getting a bigger idea of what Systems and side effects there are when making certain choices.