Find Resources

Elementary School Water Cycle overlay module - Water as a Shared Resource

This is an overlay for a 5th grade that adds computational thinking, modeling and simulation on top of an existing Water Cycle lesson.

Why Model?

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

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.

An Example of CT in the Workplace

This is an example of how a computer modeler uses various aspect of computational thinking while designing, creating and using a computer model as a tool to think with.

Crosswalks

These documents are crosswalks between the National Research Council's Framework for K-12 Science Education and CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards. They are designed to show the relationship between modeling and simulation and the scientific practices elucidated in the Standards.

Feedback loops

This document provides background information on feedback loops in complex adaptive systems.

Guía de referencia de bloques de StarLogo NOVA

Se trata de una guía que describe los bloques de comandos más comunes utilizados en StarLogo NOVA en el curso MOOC de Project GUTS en español. Están agrupados según el módulo en que se utilizan.

Changes in StarLogo Nova 2.0

This document outlines changes from StarLogo Nova 1.0 to StarLogo Nova 2.0

Guía de conceptos de ciencias de la computación

Se trata de una guía que describe varios conceptos de ciencias de la computación agrupados por categorías como eventos, instrucciones y programas, iteraciones, etc.
Explica y ejemplifica diferentes conceptos como por ejemplo: ¿Qué es un bucle o loop?

Bloques de código para modelo de cambio climático

Es una hoja de referencia con los bloques de código necesarios para el modelo de cambio climático. Se explica bloque por bloque qué función cumple cada estructura en cada pestaña de la programación con StarLogo NOVA.

Tips for teaching decoding

Some techniques to introduce students to the process of decoding a model.

Line graphs in StarLogo Nova

A brief summary of how to decode a line graph in StarLogo Nova.

Modeling Ecosystems in StarLogo Nova

This document gives background information and is a guide to CS in Science, Module 3 (Ecosystems) and building the rabbits and grass model.

Ecosystems as Complex Adaptive Systems

Background information on ecosystems for teachers' use in CS in Science, Module 3 (Ecosystems)

The Giraffe and the Platypus

This is an activity that allows teachers in a workshop to experience and explore the equity issue involved in differences in background knowledge of students.

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

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.