An experiment in teaching operations management to sixth graders using simulation

Over the past decade, efforts have been made to incorporate Operations Management and Operations Research into pre-college school curricula. Not only does this approach introduce students earlier to a relatively unknown field, but it also provides a different side of mathematics, showing that math can be very real-world specific, practical, and relevant. In this paper, we describe a semester-long research project working with a group of 14 sixth grade students at a US military base in Germany. At the end of the semester, students presented the results of a discrete event simulation study to their parents and peers. We feel the project was very successful, and would encourage others to try similar projects.