Relections
on the Classroom Use of Simulations, as discussed at the NESA Spring
Educators Conference April 2012
Neil
McCurdy, Ph.D. taught the Technology-Infused Project Learning
Institute at the NESA Spring Educators Conference, April 1, 2012.
Dr.
McCurdy now serves as Assistant principal at a new charter school in
San Diego, Coleman Tech. He formerly taught at High Tech High with
pairs of teachers (science & language), but he was dissatisfied
because of lack of differentiation there.
He
recommends using StarLogo TNG v1.5 (The Next Generation) software for
teaching programming concepts while working on realistic projects.
This particular Project-Based Learning emphasizes the additional
level of abstraction presented in creating computer simulations.
Although computer simulations are fun and engaging, they actually
require students to exercise some higher-order thinking skills in
mapping – read, abstracting – live behaviors onto a computer
screen. That work also introduces students to the concept and need
for modeling, in scientific investigation, and confirms the
importance and thus relevance of simulation models in their
education. In this case, the goal is to make a model that is
externally valid, that tells us about the real world.
One
example of a simulation project used in Dr. McCurdy's classroom is an
H1N1flu simulation, wherein students must build a model of roaming
agents that contract a disease and die within a certain specified
time, but not before possibly infecting other agents, thus spreading
the contagion.
Another
example is of firefly synchronization, modeling the behavior of
seemingly coordinated blinking of fireflies in the wild, in southest
Asia. Given the hypothesis that males who cluster together and blink
at the same time thereby attract more females, students first
hypothesized that fireflies respond to the average signal of
neighbors. Programming that hypothesis in StarLogoTNG demonstrates
the inadequacy of the hypothesis. We can then provide additional
simulation challenges: make the firefly models more agile, make some
die or opt out of blinking altogether, introduce home region, or
introduce boundaries. These efforts produce different results and
require students to think analytically while engaging them in a
seemingly realistic problem. When stretching students' attitudes to
problem-solving, part of the trick is to give them as much choice as
possible, while still keeping them learning the goals.
Other
examples of problems that have well-developed precedents, thus will
be relatively easy for me to try with my advanced students –
building a computer simulation of Invasive species, or sustainable
farming (a la Michael Pollan's poly-face farm1),
foraging ants, screen savers, genetics, and ecoBattle – modeling a
basic circle of life system with carnivores and herbivores. The
invasive species model easily adapts for cross-curricular learning,
if we team-teach with the biology teacher, to use species samples
from bio class to create a model of invasive behavior.
At
an advanced-student level, we can move one level higher in the order
of thinking about our work, by presenting the project such as
Sustainable Farming and requiring students to distribute the work
among themselves so that they must reflect not only on the task but
on the most efficient way of assembling its pieces. This is not a
free-for-all, however, as the teacher provides the structure for
determining value and efficiency – each group must make a piece of
the project that works and adds value, and then sell that to the
class. Take them through multiple iterations of a
design/sell/integrate cycle. Only earn project “money” if you
can explain their value. This is similar to the Free and Open Source
Software model that produced Firefox, Java, and StarLogo itself!
Special
notes and tips about the software: StarLogo does collisions by
assigning each agent with a sequence number, starting with id=0. The
lower number is the collider and higher number is collidee. Thus,
sometimes need to run case twice if one breed has two types within
it. StarLogo does not initialize variables! You must do it yourself.
This often provides the teachable moment in programming class, where
students realize the need for initializing variables. Dr. McCurdy
suggests that we not use the “increment” function; rather, make
students simply add by one, so as to understand the concept better.
If checking values on countdown, use less-than or equal to, in case
steps over zero.
Other
free programming tools are available, but less optimal. For
example,, for big projects. He notes that Alice cannot
“create/hatch” anything; also it requires too much preparation to
make objects. BYOB Scratch is too small, with just an
800x600-dot canvas. It also is too cutesy, and doesn't DO much, it
just moves things in fancy directions. StarLogo is more fun and
useful overall.
Other
tasks are popular now with programming-minded students. Making
mobile phone applications has become very attractive, but is quite
difficult to organize in a school. According to Dr. McCurdy, Android
app building is free but buggy, and requires lots of RAM. Iphone
apps require MacBooks and OSX.
Note
that Dr. McCurdy developed StarJava as a program more advanced than
StarLogo—just a Java front-end to StarLogo, as a way to introduce
advanced students to real programming where they could control more
variables and use case logic.
While
StarLogoTNG enables students to readily build computerized
simulations of real-world behaviors, thereby engaging students in the
use of abstract modeling. Live simulations of real-world behavior
have long been tools in social studies classes, enabling teachers to
engage students with more personalized views of global issues.
1Popularized
by Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, Poly-face
farm is described in the Washington Post, May 6, 2009 Travel
section.
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