StarLogo TNG: Save the Giraffes!

To download StarLogo TNG, visit http://education.mit.edu/starlogo/. 

Today was all about using StarLogo TNG to model a flood! First, to get them excited, students learned about what is StarLogo TNG and how to use this creative software in an initial 5 minute presentation. Then, students were allowed to explore the software on their own - Could they create agents and give them behaviors? Could they manipulate the terrain in Spaceland?

Secondly, the instructors programmed the scenario with the students. Camp instructor Jen explained what was the scenario and how it would work by giving the students a live demo of the completed project. In short, the scenario that instructors and students programmed was: 

There was a flood. There are 20 giraffes wandering Spaceland looking for high ground to stay out of the water. You will earn a score based on the height of the ground that the giraffes find. If a giraffe stays on high ground, your score will be positively affected. If a giraffe is on lower ground, your score will be negatively affected. A line graph will chart score over time.

The giraffes behavior has been modified so that if they are on high ground, they will
stay on high ground. The score has been graphed on the left. 

Additionally, campers were asked to complete two worksheets throughout the process of modeling the flood. Finally, students were given a list of challenges to complete. The challenges asked the students to modify their program in various ways, most leading to an overall increase in score. Some of the challenges included:

• Adding more mountains and valleys to Spaceland to positively affect their score
• Changing the color of the terrain to positively affect their score
• Moving agents to the highest point in Spaceland, and keeping them there, to positively affect their score
• Changing agent’s behavior for certain colors of patches in Spaceland to positively affect their score

At the end of each day of camp, we encourage our students to fill out a small survey so that we can better craft an amazing camp experience. The survey for today can be found here: June 12: End-of-Day Survey

Blog Prompt: 
What did you learn today?
Did you complete the challenges from Part III? Which ones? How?
What was your favorite part?

Notes:

Click here to download a short introductory presentation to StarLogo TNG.
Click here to download the YWiC StarLogo TNG lesson plans for building the game described above.
Click here to download the first and second worksheets that accompany the game described above.