System Dynamics: Adding a String to the Modelling Bow

This chapter illustrates system dynamics modelling as a means of real-world problem-solving. Distinctive aspects are related to the familiar modelling cycle. Differential equations are used comparatively, with simple models, to introduce properties of software that enable solution by simulation; essential when equations are simultaneous and non-linear. Examples of common structures (archetypes) are used to demonstrate application to problems made tractable by software, newly free and online. Increasingly national curricula emphasise the importance of students being enabled to apply mathematics in the workplace, as citizens, and for private purposes. We illustrate how system dynamics provides (now accessible) methods, that are directly relevant to these purposes at secondary level and beyond.