Grow a Vegetable Garden Simulation Simulation Story Board Sherry Burrill and Laura Hurlbirt

Scenario - Type Goal Based - Simulation Outcomes:  Crop quantity  Crop quality  Variable Data

Scenario - Type Goal Based - Cognitive Outcomes:  Develop a hypothesis  Design, perform experiments  Analyze data

Mission Simulation: Plant and raise a crop History: Of interest to learner (grades 3-4), of benefit to community, inspired by the White House Garden Background: Must be educational, designed to support State of Missouri Science and Mathematics requirements

Science and Mathematics Requirements  Living Organisms: by providing knowledge about plants  Ecology: by demonstrating interactions among Organisms and their Environments  Earth Systems: by demonstrating interactions of weather and water  Data and Probability: by engaging the student in formulating questions  Data and Probability: by providing graphs that represent and encourage the interpretation of data

Scientific Inquiry: providing a means to experiment and test theories Row 1- Crop type? Add water? Add fertilizer? Row 2- Crop type? Add water? Add fertilizer? More plants? How many carrots will I get? Healthier plants? How many survived? What went wrong?

Activities  Look up and learn about crops in Gardening Book  Plant seeds  Add water  Add fertilizer  Weed the garden  Check the weather  Check ground moisture  Assess the harvest  Review data summary of learner inputs against results

Objects Needed

Learner Role  To manipulate variables  Or not manipulate them  Observe their own results  Discover relationships between variables and end results  Understand these relationships through analysis of graphs

Mission Focus  Learner Control:  Learner Control: The sim results are directly affected by learner inputs. No input, no crop; once planted, if not cared for will not produce. Sim will proceed on its own thru growing cycle once planted, without input of variables.   Design: Learner will select variables and apply them at will.

Mission Focus Continued  Discovery: Experiments are provided for with two rows available to plant/water/fertilize. Learner may vary variables between the rows and observe the results  Explanation: The results of the simulation activity will be displayed numerically, pictorially and graphically, allowing them to recognize data in multiple forms. This data will also provide them with an opportunity to understand how the use of variables throughout the simulation affected the sim results

Operations  Learner activities: Learner will plant crop, water crop, fertilize crop, weed crop, harvest crop. Learner will also have access to a gardening book for reference. Learner will view data reports of results of inputs.  Simulation will capture data for number of applications of each variable, adjust visuals based on cycle and variable effects.

Databases

Interfaces  Opening  Student Objectives  Tutorial  Simulation  Closing:  Data Reporting  Graphs

Scenes: Opening Objectives

Scenes: Opening Tutorial

Learner Actions Learner controls; direct manipulation

Instructional Support  Instructor guide  Linear content via Gardening Book  Help functions  Hyperlinks  Results analysis via graphs

Variables Click this: For the weekly weather report: Saturday partly sunny, 65 degrees Sunday cloudy, 62 degrees Monday sunny, 70 degrees Tuesday rain, 63 degrees Wednesday rain, 62 degrees Thursday, sunny, 72 degrees Friday, sunny, 71 degrees

Scenes: Help Features Gardening Book Table of Contents Corn Lettuce Fertilizer Plant Diseases/Problems

Feedback and Closing   Feedback provided throughout simulation by visual cues: plants will thrive (grow larger) or turn yellow and shrink or turn brown and disappear   At completion of simulation, learner will see how well they achieved the goal with numerical and pictorial representations of harvest   Graphs documenting the learner’s use of variables against harvest results are provided for further discussion and reflection

Scene: Closing