Think through the consequences associated with the development of a widget plant upstream from the Alma Mater School. While the plant will be good for the region’s economy, will it release widgoxyn—a deadly chemical known to interfere with aquatic food webs—in such quantities that it will irreparably damage the stunningly beautiful Alma Mater Pond?

Business cycles are a fact of life for many industries. Market demand peaks one year only to plummet a year or two later. In this case study of a semiconductor business, Henk Akkermans, Professor of Supply Network Dynamics at Tilburg University, explores different policy options for order handling, production planning and capacity management to reduce oscillation and improve system performance.

Explore a consulting firm’s headcount strategy. Understand the relationship between growth rates, promotion times, headcount pyramid ratios, and attrition rates.

Use this simple policy design lab, to experiment with policy options for allocating funds from a tobacco settlement. Explore how different programs aimed at adults and kids impact the health of a state populace.

Experience the dynamics of overshooting/undershooting inventory typical in the retail industry. Tour this supply chain model to understand the structure from the factory through multiple retailers to the consumer.

For virtually any service organization, the allocation of resources is a recurring strategic issue. Use this strategy lab to practice growing an organization while allocating resources to both "selling" and "doing" projects.

Take control of a start-up business in this simulation game. Using a Balanced Scorecard approach, orchestrate tactical and strategic levers to experience what is required to breathe life into a business.

Experience the dynamics of making a business shift from traditional to e-commerce. Simulate different scenarios for how you’ll allocate spending on marketing versus infrastructure.

Explore an alternative to the popular US "Cash for Clunkers" program. Using a combination of fees and rebates, this simulation lets you experiment with options that are self-sustaining AND reduce automobile emissions.

Use this learning lab to investigate the housing crisis. Play with interest rates as if you are Chairman of the Federal Reserve and see the impact on housing supply and demand. What happens when banks relax mortgage requirements and more people qualify to buy homes?

Explore the model behind this classic Systems Archetype to understand well known behavior patterns like the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. What is it about the structure of our decision policies that determines success?

What is most effective in controlling the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus in schools? Is it better to vaccinate or stay home? Use this learning lab to understand how infectious disease spreads and why H1N1 has been signaled a pandemic.

Experiment with different velocities and find out how they impact the solution to this typical distance and time problem. See how STELLA helps students make sense of often difficult to understand mathematical concepts and equations.

As the manager of a small but thriving natural wilderness area, would you allow a one-time harvest of a key species in the wilderness? What impact might it have on other populations? In this simple predator-prey system, experiment with different predator harvests, and observe the effects on both the predator and prey populations over time.

Play the role of physician, trying to keep the drug level in a virtual patient’s bloodstream in the therapeutic range. Learn the basic processes of drug-physiology interaction.

See the progression that plants go through in a forest ecosystem, from forb to hardwood with each plant type readying soil conditions for the next type in the progression.

What do the bubonic plague, falling roof beams and dead fish have in common? Read this story and unfurl the STELLA/iThink model to solve the mystery.

This interactive lesson in sustainability presents students with the challenge of developing a shrimping policy that allows the maximum sustainable yield.

Conduct experiments and try to maintain a constant temperature in a house that uses a climate control system. Turn on and off the Proportional and Integral controllers that drive the heat pump.

You’re driving on the highway and around the curve is an overturned truck. Can you stop in time? Experiment with factors such as speed, reaction time and road conditions. What happens if it’s raining or your tires are bald?

Use this virtual laboratory to explore the plot and character development in one of Shakespeare's widely read plays . What would happen if Hamlet where a “man of actions” as opposed to a “man of thought?” How would different characterizations change both the timing and the overall ending of the play?