EcoGEM: Developing Ecological Systems Thinking Through Interactive Food Web Simulations
2026 · Interactive learning experience · Designer and developer
The following experience is designed to help you move through a Generate-Evaluate-Modify cycle using a dynamic ecological simulation. EcoGEM (Morris, 2026) is an interactive experience built around the use of the Annenberg Ecology Lab.
Ecological systems thinking
As students progress through the grades, there is a shift to a dynamic and complex perspective that becomes increasingly difficult for students to grasp.
Altogether, as these patterns emerge they point to a broader misconception: in middle school, students rely on overly simple, linear mental models of ecosystems and have not yet developed the “systems thinking” that is needed to understand biodiversity as a dynamic, interconnected system.
Making system behaviour visible
Students’ difficulties with understanding ecosystems as dynamic, interdependent systems necessitate the development of learning environments that make hidden processes visible, allow students to test and revise their ideas, and support the movement from linear to systemic reasoning.
Simulations afford the opportunity to make student thinking visible and allow them to manipulate variables that might be otherwise inaccessible.
These linked representations make system behaviour more visible by allowing users to connect what they see in the ecosystem with what they see in the data.