Find Resources

water cycle diagram

Module 2 Lesson 1 - Introduction to Water as a Shared Resource

Posted November 21, 2019 by wellina

In this lesson students will engage in discussion about water resources and group decision making, stimulated by a video and a participatory simulation that serve to highlight group decision-making dynamics. The video will serve to get students thinking about water resources and the difficulties some people their age face in obtaining safe drinking water. The two activities will provide background on how communities make decisions, especially when dealing with a shared resource like water.

greenhouse video image

The Greenhouse Effect

Posted July 27, 2018 by sgibbs

A short video on the basics of the greenhouse effect, used in CS in Science, Module 2 (Greenhouse gas model).

Cellular screen capture showing ant simulation on a honey trap

Block-based agent-based modeling tool based on Scratch

Posted September 25, 2017 by Rizzi

Cellular is an agent-based modeling tool that uses a Scratch-like interface and allows teachers and students to create models and simulations in a very easy way. This makes this tool suitable to introduce ABM into the Primary level but also in Middle & High School taking advantage of previous students experience with Scratch. Cellular is based on Snap wich it's also based on Scratch. And you can also work off-line!!

Photo of coral from emergence video

Emergence video

Posted July 27, 2018 by sgibbs

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.

Beaker with silver nitrate solution and copper pipe

Silver Nitrate Production video

Posted July 27, 2018 by sgibbs

A short video showing "Silver Production from Silver Nitrate using a Copper Pipe" - used if wet lab activity not available for CS in Science Module 4 (Chemical Reactions)

m1l6

Module 1 Lesson 6 - Adding Instrumentation to your Model and Running Experiments

Posted November 21, 2019 by wellina

In this lesson students will add instrumentation to their model so they can collect quantitative data on the spread of disease. Students will use this model to run experiments to determine if disease will spread throughout a
virtual population under different initial conditions and different scenarios.

Screen capture of Code.org pair programming video

Pair Programming video

Posted July 27, 2018 by turtle

This short video (2:51 minutes) features two middle school girls describing and practicing pair programming. It is a great introduction to this method of learning programming and creating models.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology video - image of birds flocking

Complex Adaptive Systems Modeling Video

Posted July 27, 2018 by turtle

This short video (3:13 minutes) introduces complex adaptive systems and agent-based modeling concepts to middle-school students. It shows beautiful footage of birds flocking as an example of a complex adaptive system.

Skill building lawnmower spiral

Skill Building Deck

Posted June 12, 2019 by ilee

A slide deck of exercises to build CS and decoding skills

Flower Turtles

Module 1 Lesson 2 - Introduction to StarLogo Nova and Building Flower Turtles

Posted November 3, 2019 by wellina

In this lesson students will participate in two activities. The first activity is a guided introduction to the StarLogo Nova simulation environment. In the second activity, students will learn a few simple commands and then create their first computer program. Students will progress from single turtle explorations to instructing many turtles to follow their commands in parallel.

if then terrain

Module 1 Lesson 3 - Conditionals with Trailblazer and Bumper Turtles

Posted November 17, 2019 by wellina

In this lesson students will participate in two activities. In the first they will
learn about conditionals, logic, and Boolean expressions as they guide an
agent through a puzzle. They also consider the best path / solution and the degree of universality of their solution. In the second activity, students will learn a few simple commands and then starting with a basic project, implement a Bumper Turtles program in which agents respond to their environment.

colliding turtles

Module 1 Lesson 4 - Probability with Dice and Data and Colliding Turtles

Posted November 17, 2019 by wellina

In this lesson students will participate in two activities. In the first activity, students will learn about probability, how it is implemented in StarLogo Nova, and use probability to implement chance behavior in agent movement. In the second activity, students will create a Colliding Turtles project in which turtles react to other turtles upon collision. The wrap-up discussion covers what probability is used for in computer modeling and simulation.

mrsa

Module 1 Lesson 5 - Modeling the Spread of Disease

Posted November 17, 2019 by wellina

In this lesson students will convert their Colliding Turtles model into a simple Epidemic model by adding slider widgets for transmission rate and recovery rate. The Contagion model represents a very simplified version of an epidemic or spread of a disease. Two variables will be created: transmission rate and recovery rate. Students will later use this model to run experiments to determine if disease will spread throughout a virtual population in different scenarios.

Search for "[keyword]" across the whole site.
If you can't find what you're looking for, send us a comment about what you were expecting to find.

Unless otherwise licensed, all works accessible here are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Teachers with GUTS is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.