Book reviews: Adventures in modeling:exploring complex, dynamic systems with starlogo
Vanessa Colella, Eric D. Klopfer, Mitchel Resnick · Mathematics and computer education · 2002
ADVENTURES IN MODELING: EXPLORING COMPLEX, DYNAMIC SYSTEMS WITH STARLOGO By Vanessa Stevens Colella, Eric Klopfer, and Mitchel Resnick Teachers College Press, 2001, 188 pp. + CD Adventures in Modeling is a captivating introduction to the techniques of decentralized modeling of complex systems using cellular automata. The computer science and mathematical subfields of self-organization, cellular automata, and artificial life hold a particular fascination for students. Adventures in Modeling provides the software, examples, and innumerable suggestions on entry into these exciting areas. Adventures in Modeling is written specifically for educators as an introduction to model building. The book emphasizes the design and creation of modeling projects in an environment that promotes the exploration of new ideas (p. 3). The book can be used in many settings and at many levels. It is appropriate for students from middle school to upper-level computer science or mathematics and could be used profitably by researchers in artificial life or complex, dynamic systems. The book has three main sections. The first six chapters present the philosophy behind the modeling software StarLogo which comes with the book. StarLogo is a parallel version of the popular turtle programming language Logo. In StarLogo we have a square grid of patches. The patches serve as the environment for a programmer-determined population of turtles. Turtles are programmed in a fashion similar to traditional Logo. They can be made to move, turn, write, modify patches, etc. Specified types of turtles all follow the same set of instructions, which are executed in parallel. This gives rise to a graphic image of numerous multi-colored moving patterns as in cellular automata. StarLogo approaches the modeling of systems from the point of view of individuals rather than from a systems level. Using StarLogo, the model specifies the behavior of individuals and then studies emergent properties of the system of these interacting individuals over time. StarLogo projects describe how individuals not populations - behave. Included in the first six chapters are numerous suggestions for teachers on the classes and contexts for which StarLogo modeling is appropriate as well as websites for national and state mathematics and science standards, other modeling environments, and research laboratories. The second section of Adventures in Modeling contains Activities and Challenges designed to teach the reader decentralized modeling and StarLogo. The Challenges are open-ended suggestions for creating models accompanied by examples that are included on the accompanying CD. …