Work in progress — Evolution of a system dynamic course at Penn State Behrend

Over the last five years at Penn State Behrend a Systems Dynamics course has been offered in place of a “automatic control” course. The structure, benefits and challenges involved with this course are discussed. Even though the course is primarily a lecture type course several hands on and student initiated activities have been incorporated to motivate the students. Interdisciplinary application is another emphasis of this class. Feedback from students shows that the students highly value those features. There are indications that appreciation of the “systemic” approach to the modeling of dynamic systems is being accomplished.