A Systems Activity About Our Universe

Edith Pucci Couchman

 

As a teacher, I’ve found that work with this diagram can be very helpful when I’m trying to convey to a group (that’s learning about the universe or contemporary science in general) an understanding of the nested, multilevel, material systems that characterize our Cosmos.  Importantly, learners seemed to enjoy this activity.  As they are asked to consider systems ranging from quarks to eukaryotes, from multicellular organisms to ecosystems or even the universe, the project offers them a challenging puzzle to solve and embellish.

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The image in the diagram concisely depicts some of the key interlocking levels of organization that structure our physical world.  The activity was originally designed for well-prepared 12-year-olds but it can be used with adults as well.  Following a bit of background information from you as the workshop leader / teacher, you can invite learners to sequentially arrange the categories listed in the Word Bank from largest to smallest.  This can be accomplished through group discussions involving the entire class or smaller competing teams, or by individuals working on their own.  Afterwards, ideally, students color / ‘illuminate’ the resulting illustrations so that they appeal visually (as well as verbally) to their innate sense of beauty.  One rewarding consequence of this process is that participants can exercise and express their aesthetic gifts and then share with others both their artistry and their newly organized knowledge.

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To recap, the activity generates a schema of some of the major organizational levels of matter and energy that contribute to the evolution of life on this marvelous planet Earth.  It can be valuable as a discussion prompt or assessment for studies of Deep History, endosymbiosis, phylogeny, multilevel selection, physical scale, and more.  The accompanying article explores the motivational value of a coherent, emotionally satisfying worldview.  The text highlights the relationship of life’s evolutionary pageant to the insights of Thomas Berry, a few other philosophers, and Eastern faith traditions.  It notes how this activity can nurture ‘both and’ thinking as well as people’s vital sense of wonder.

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Additional information and samples of student artwork related to this activity can be accessed at my website:  https://evolvingbeauty.org/systems-activity-green-teacher-magazine/.