You could act out a simple model..... Since ABMs consist of agents with "instructions" and, (often) an environment, I can envision a brief, or not so brief, example where individuals in your group were given instructions that pertain to "buyers" "sellers" "brokers" etc. They could randomly(?) encounter other agents and then follow a set of directions (known only to them?). Etc. I expect this has been done before.... And would surely take more than 30 min in most cases.
A very simple version of this is an exercise whereby everyone in the group stand in an open room (as if at a cocktail party?). Everyone selects two other individuals (targets) known only to them and at a signal from the leader each person takes a position equidistant from these two targets. The leader can then request a few individuals to move.... Resulting in movement by many others in the room. I can imagine many variations. I expect many may be familiar with this exercise since it is used to illustrate interconnectedness in systems, but it is also an ABM example with identical agents having identical instructions.
R G Dudley
http://earth01.net/RGDudley/
sent from iPad
> On Jul 13, 2014, at 9:56 AM, "Nicolas Malleson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I was wondering if anyone has any good activities that will help students to learn about agent-based modelling. Usually I would get the students to experiment with a few NetLogo models, but in this case we won’t have access to computers.
>
> The group will have just had 30 minutes of me introducing agent-based modelling, so I think a practical example that they can do themselves will be a nice diversion.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Nick
>
> --
> Nick Malleson
> School of Geography, University of Leeds
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> 0113 34 35248
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