Description
Wilensky, U. and K. Reisman. 2006. Thinking Like a Wolf, a Sheep, or a Firefly: Learning Biology Through Constructing and Testing Computational Theories--an Embodied Modeling Approach. Cognition Instruction. 24(2): 171-209.
See https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s1532690xci2402_1 . Accessed 27 March 2023.
Abstract: Biological phenomena can be investigated at multiple levels, from the molecular to the cellular to the organismic to the ecological. In typical biology instruction, these levels have been segregated. Yet, it is by examining the connections between such levels that many phenomena in biology, and complex systems in general, are best explained. We describe a computation-based approach that enables students to investigate the connections between different biological levels. Using agent-based, embodied modeling tools, students model the micro-rules underlying a biological phenomenon, and observe the resultant aggregate dynamics. We describe two cases in which this approach was employed. In both cases, students frame hypotheses, construct multi-agent models that incorporate these hypotheses, and test these by running their models and observing the outcomes. Contrasting these cases against traditionally employed, classical equations-based approaches, we argue that the embodied modeling approach connects more directly to students’ experience, enables extended investigations as well as deeper understanding, and enables “advanced” topics to be productively introduced into the high school curriculum.
Agent-based modeling is used with rules for the wolf and fox to generate data which is then modeled with a system of predator-prey differential equations.
KEYWORDS: predator prey, model, differential equation, simulation, NetLogo, agent-based
2006-Wilensky-Reisman.pdf
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