I like the students to guide a volunteer around the classroom by giving
them the kind of instructions you give to NetLogo turtles. This has the
class focusing and collaborating on a common task, and produces much
mirth when people collide with furniture and walls.
If I then get them to write down their instructions beforehand, they
are effectively writing their first program, without their needing a
computer or thinking they have any computer programming skills.
(The follow-up exercise is then, of course, to start the computer and
do it in silico. It serves as a nice stepping stone to Nigel Gilbert's
first programming exercise, which is to write NetLogo code for a turtle
to trace your initials. Incidently, does anyone still use a "real"
turtle robot for this kind of exercise?)
I would be interested in suggestions of how to go from this
1-turtle/person exercise to a multi-agent one.
Christopher
>> 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
--
______________________________________________________________________
Dr Christopher J Watts
Senior Scientist
Chair in Human-Environment Relations,
Department of Geography,
Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich
Germany
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