Huang Do these models work?

Modeling with a computer system encourages students to explore problem solving from different levels of analysis. Rather than focusing on the individual turtle, in a model, a student can easily visualize an aggregate of turtles and view their interactions with the environment around them. Indeed, Simpson describes several cases in which students seem to be explaining various concepts at a “higher level”. However, he also notes that the most common limitation while modeling “was that they tended to produce specific rather than general solutions” (Simpson, p 30). Only “over time and with help” were these 13 to 14 year old students able to see the value of the more general case models. Is this limitation inevitable? The sense of self becomes so deeply rooted at a young age. It is only natural that students can envision their behavior as a turtle, but struggle to broaden this knowledge to a group of turtles. Is this the natural order for learning? In other words, is it necessary to think more specifically before being able to generalize those specific situations to all circumstances? And if so, is there is an age limit of when students can start thinking abstractly?

Regardless, Simpson highlights the importance of educators in using these models. Students may be perfectly capable of starting programs on their own, but to debug some of the models, well-trained educators are necessary. For example, Simpson notes that “students had difficulty when first encountering the need to swap the values, but managed to implement a swapping procedure with help from instructors” (Simpson, p 31). Further, educators may be needed to explain phenomena that students observe through these models, but cannot quite explain. Students had trouble seeing the speed of cart1 as a variable instead of a value. The velocity swapping idea in the collision models can also be difficult to understand. “Velocity swapping is more of a consequence than an explanatory theory” (Simpson, p 32), so what is the underlying explanatory theory for why the carts swap velocities, and do the students understand this deeper knowledge? Does using models run the risk of having students understand concepts too simply or superficially without truly understanding the concept?

Finally, this study was conducted with a group of 6 students at a secondary school who volunteered their extracurricular time to be a part of this project. Are there barriers to student learning with models? Does using models to learn, just like any other method of learning, work better for some students than others? Does using models engage more students? Is it possible to make students curious about learning, and do the models achieve this difficult task? I suppose that these are some of the questions that we will begin to answer while we work with students at USN.

Some project ideas:

• The heart and vasculature and how it functions like a pump and tubes
• Modeling diabetes as a result of the interactions between insulin, glucagon, and glucose and their relative sensitivities/resistances
• Clouds/rain and how it forms (I know almost nothing about this topic and don’t really know whether it would fit into a good model, but I think it might be interesting)