How does the pandemic impact our lives in many different ways?
Loopy is a fun tool that can help you to draw complex systems and cause-and-effect relationships!
Watch the video below to learn how YOU can use Loopy to draw a picture to explain how Covid-19 affects your life!
Play with an example model
In this example, we can see when the spread of the Covid-19 virus goes up or down other elements in the system are impacted. If you look closely, you can see that even elements that aren’t directly connected to the spread of Covid-19 virus can change. This is because ALL the elements in the system are interconnected.
How was this system model created?
Cause and effect relationships
I started by looking for cause-and-effect relationships in the system.
Watch the video to learn a bit more about the causes and effects I started with in my system.
Circular feedback loops
My system started out as a series of cause-and-effect relationships, but I wanted to add in more relationships to change the systems’ behavior or the way it acts.
First, I tried adding a balancing feedback loop.
Watch the video to learn a bit about what balancing feedback loops look like and how they change the behavior of the system.
Next, I tried adding a reinforcing feedback loop. We might hear these called a “vicious cycle”.
Modifying my system model
After I played with feedback loops, I wanted to change up my original system model made up of simple cause-and-effect relationships and make things a little more complex. Sometimes this was because I thought of something that was missing and other times it was because I tried adding something different (feedback loops) and I wanted to see how that would change my system model.
My model isn’t perfect, but that's okay! No model is perfect! Instead, I am going to focus on playing with my system and thinking about if I can make changes that will make it more like the real world works.
Create your own system model
Now it’s your turn! Try building a system model of your own in Loopy. It doesn’t need to be complicated. You can start by drawing a bubble for the Covid-19 pandemic and then thinking about all the different ways our lives have changed because of this event. You might think about changes at school, at home, in your town or city, or even global changes! Draw several more bubbles and label them with your ideas.
Now you are ready to connect your system elements! Draw arrows between your elements when they impact one another. Label these interactions (arrows) as positive (+) if the effect goes up or negative (-) if the effect goes down.
Remember, don’t be too worried if system model isn’t perfect or if it doesn’t seem to get everything right. All models are flawed, but some are still useful!