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Facilitator Resources (2023)

The following resources are created by Project GUTS facilitators to help prepare for 2023 GUTS workshops

Workshop Planning Guide

A list of factors to consider for facilitators and school districts or partner organizations in planning a workshop.

BCSC 5e Instructional Model

BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) paper explaining the 5e instructional model. The model describes a teaching sequence that can be used for entire programs, specific units, and individual lessons. The BSCS 5E Instructional Model plays a significant role in the curriculum development process as well as the enactment of curricular materials in science classrooms.

Traffic Unit for StarLogo Nova

This unit engages students in the use of agent-based modeling to look into why we have traffic jams and test ideas to try to improve traffic flow, and demonstrates the use of simulation to solve difficult engineering problems. Specifically we focus on the problem of traffic bottleneck congestion. A secondary goal is to further students’ understanding of the network concept as a way to model real world flows of data and matter.

Littering Unit

Littering is a type of non-point source pollution caused
 by humans acting independently from each other, however causing a global environmental problem. Controlling this source of pollution is hard to manage despite numerous interventions. Pollution of groundwater, rivers, oceans result from these everyday littering behavior whether intentional or accidental. In this unit we will model a simple form of littering and then ways to reduce it in our community.

Emergency Egress

Emergency Egress is the study of people exiting a building or other social gathering space in an emergency situation. This unit explores models and other ways to analyze the safety of a building and to evaluate which elements may affect how quickly and safely a space may be evacuated. It also discusses the issues of modeling humans in emergency situations.

Shared Resources - Economics

As the human population grows, it has become increasingly important to understand how humans are impacting the environment and how resources are managed and used. Often, this type of understanding falls under the topic of Sustainability in which the needs of the present population are met without compromising the needs of future generations. In this unit, we look at a variety of resources, through the lens of complex adaptive systems, especially studying feedback and interdependence.

Why Model?

A paper describing the author's reasons why modeling is essential to science.

Guía de observación de un modelo basado en agentes

Se trata de una guía para poder observar un modelo basado en agentes y reconocer sus diferentes partes, como por ejemplo las abstracciones (quiénes son los agentes, cuál es el entorno, cuáles son las interacciones); la automatización; los supuestos y el análisis.

StarLogo NOVA 2.0: ¿Qué cambió y qué es lo nuevo?

Spanish version of "SLNOVA 2.0: WHAT'S CHANGED OR NEW".

Versión en español del documento "SLNOVA 2.0: WHAT'S CHANGED OR NEW" con la comparación entre ambas versiones y el detalle de las nuevas funcionalidades de SLNOVA 2.0

Experimental Design for Virtual Instruction

A Google Sheet to use for conducting the Experimental Design activity in a remote learning classroom.c

Scientific Practices and Computational Thinking in Modeling & Simulation

This document is a handout used to reflect on the scientific practices and computational thinking involved in a Project GUTS module or lesson.

Tips for Facilitators

Suggestions on best practices for teaching Project GUTS lessons, by acting as a facilitator to student learning, rather than a lecturer on your known content.

CS in Science Agenda for 5 day workshop

This is an agenda for facilitators to use in planning a five-day CS in Science workshop.

Emergence video

A portion of a PBS NOVA video discussing the concept of emergence (or complex adaptive systems) where patterns emerge in nature where agents follow simple rules.

Scientific Practices Form

A printable copy of the Scientific Practices Form used throughout CS in Science Modules.

Project Design Form

A printable copy of the Project Design Form, used in Project GUTS CS in Science Modules.

Experimental Design Form

A printable copy of the experimental design form, used in Project GUTS CS in Science Modules, for students to plan an experiment, including identifying variables, planning data collection and analysis, and interpretation.

Facilitator Resources (from 2019)

This is a set of resources to help Facilitators prepare for Workshops.

Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design (UbD) curriculum offers a 3-stage “backward design” framework for developing units of study. The same process guides larger-scale curriculum development for courses and
programs (macro level). The UbD curriculum structure for building a coherent curriculum spirals around “big ideas,” essential questions, and core assessments.