Biology Students Building Computer Simulations Using StarLogo TNG

Smith, Virginia A.; Duncan, Ishbel

doi:10.3108/beej.18.6se

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…There are also several graphical environments for simulated robots aimed at middle schools, such as Start Logo [20], Squeak Etoys [21], and Scratch [22]. These are easy-to-use programming interfaces, getting inexperienced students off to make a quick start, but they are designed only for particular simulated environments.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Behavior-Based Approach for Educational Robotics Activities

et al. 2013

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Educational robotics proposes the use of robots as a teaching resource that enables inexperienced students to approach topics in fields unrelated to robotics. In recent years, these activities have grown substantially in elementary and secondary school classrooms and also in outreach experiences to interest students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) undergraduate programs. A key problem in educational robotics is providing a satisfactory, adequate, easy-to-use interface between an inexpert public and the robots. This paper presents a behavior-based application for programming robots and the design of robotic-centered courses and other outreach activities. Evaluation data show that over 90% of students find it easy to use. These activities are part of a comprehensive outreach program conducted by the Exact and Natural Science Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (FCEN-UBA). Statistical data show that since 2009 over 35% of new students at the FCEN-UBA have participated in some outreach activity, suggesting their significant impact on student enrollment in STEM-related programs.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Behavior-Based Approach for Educational Robotics Activities

et al. 2013

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“…The students in the class created computer games using StarLogo TNG, which is client-based modeling and simulation software that teaches students and teachers how to design and create their own 3D games and simulations for understanding complex systems. StarLogo TNG is a game-making tool to motivate novice learners and allows them to begin programming immediately without requiring any level of text-based programming knowledge (Smith & Dunchan, 2011). In this study, StarLogo TNG was appropriate for all participants in terms of their prior programming knowledge.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing Educational 3D Games With StarLogo: The Role of Backwards Fading in the Transfer of Programming Experience

Boldbaatar

Şendurur

2018

Journal of Educational Computing Research

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The emergence of block-based environments aims to facilitate the problems caused by the abstractness of text-based languages. Recent studies generally focus on the effect of having block-based experience on programming education. This study is an attempt to observe the transfer of previous programming experiences (block-based vs. text-based) into a three-dimensional game-making environment through the use of backwards fading. In addition to observation of transfer, students' perceptions about the difficulty of practices were also investigated. Twenty-one senior university students participated in the study. They practiced through worked example, completion example, and full practice. Moreover, the comparison of the contribution of three examples, their perceived difficulty, and cognitive load has also been observed. There are four main findings that add value to the current literature. First, students having text-based programming experience had higher scores, which may be a sign of far transfer; second, completion example format was more efficient for students having block-based programming experience; third, full practice format was perceived as more difficult than either worked example or completion example; and fourth, based on the efficiency of example formats, completion example represented high efficiency for all students. However, average efficiency of all example formats has represented high efficiency for students, who had text-based programming experience.

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“…Discussion should then turn to how collective behaviours can emerge from the actions of autonomous individuals responding to their immediate environment -it can be helpful here to add in some biological examples, such as the different forms of shoaling behaviour seen in fish, or trail-forming and nest-building behaviour in ants: Camazine et al (2001) and Couzin & Krause (2003) give many good examples. Also, see Smith & Duncan (2011) for a different approach to using the simulation of collective behaviour to teach modelling.…”

Section: Activity 2 Introduction Of Example System With Small Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Physical and Computer Simulations of Collective Behaviour as an Introduction to Modelling Concepts for Applied Biologists

Rands

2012

Bioscience Education

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Models are an important tool in science: not only do they act as a convenient device for describing a system or problem, but they also act as a conceptual tool for framing and exploring hypotheses. Models, and in particular computer simulations, are also an important education tool for training scientists, but it is difficult to teach students the value and use of models as a conceptual tool in their own right. Within the applied and whole-organism biological sciences, students often enter their courses with little trust of their mathematical abilities, and teaching them that scientific models are tools that they can engage with themselves is arguably a difficult task (especially given limitations in curriculum time and prior background knowledge). Here, I describe a half-day practical session designed to introduce modelling concepts to undergraduates on an applied biology course. This practical follows a progression from observation of a natural phenomenon (flocking behaviour in animals), to hypothesis formation, and then simulation of these hypotheses using a mixture of physical activity and individual computer work using agent-based models. Discussion focuses on why physical activity may be important for the students to be able to properly understand and appreciate the computer simulations.The various disciplines such as ecology, zoology, botany, conservation and experimental psychology that could be classified as 'whole organism biology' moved on from being just 'natural history' subjects to full-blown hypothesis-driven science when evolution was first formally acknowledged as a fundamental process behind observed phenomena (Darwin, 1859). Conceptually, these subjects rely on a rich range of hypotheses explored as mathematical 928 9582 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS SAR acknowledges the comments and feedback of the undergraduates who conducted and guided the development of this practical in 2006-2010, and would like to thank Heather Whitney and several anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript.

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Biology Students Building Computer Simulations Using StarLogo TNG

Abstract: Confidence is an important issue for biology students in handling computational

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

A Behavior-Based Approach for Educational Robotics Activities

A Behavior-Based Approach for Educational Robotics Activities

Developing Educational 3D Games With StarLogo: The Role of Backwards Fading in the Transfer of Programming Experience

Using Physical and Computer Simulations of Collective Behaviour as an Introduction to Modelling Concepts for Applied Biologists

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