Participatory Simulations: immersive learning environments Emotionally engaging, “first-person” experience Identification with and use of tangible objects Collaborative participation and theory-building Synergy between physical and virtual worlds (Vanessa Stevens Colella) Thinking Tag: The top Tag has met two people and is not sick. The bottom Tag has met six people and is sick, as indicated by the five red LEDs.

Augmenting intelligence through mediated experience Facilitates more complex simulations Remember and monitor more information Identify complex patterns Enables you to move back and forth between the “computer” and the “personal” experience Alternative representations Various learning styles Supports early attempts at formalizing simulations Surface assumptions Develop coherent mental models (Vanessa Stevens Colella)

The HubNet Mission: Systems dynamics and complexity learning for ALL students The problems our society faces are increasingly systemic in character The study of dynamic systems stands as a new form of literacy for all, a new way of describing, viewing and symbolizing phenomena in the world The world of dynamic experience and the world of static school representations stands as one source of student alienation from the current curriculum

The HubNet Learning Problem: Deterministic/centralized mindset Students have considerable difficulties in making sense of complex systems— emergent phenomena and global patterns that arise from distributed interaction Participatory simulations have previously been used in the social sciences but not in math and science

The HubNet Learning Problem: What is different about math and science? Lack of close integration of participatory simulation activities with modeling/analysis technologies Class discussions need to be supported with functions such as simulation replay, construction of alternative scenarios and assumptions, and alternative visualizations Technology must be available to support student participation

HubNet: A Participatory Simulation Architechure “Innovative networked classroom-based technologies connect learners’ evolving intuitions with powerful tools for modeling and analysis” “Learners working in the networked environment make overt and visible their strategies in relation to generating different kinds of emergent behavior” “These tools enable them to analytically understand these systems, in effect working with the mathematics of change without needing to master the formalisms of differential equations.”

HubNet The network-based activity will help make visible learners’ ideas and ways of organization their experiences, which should significantly advance our understanding of these forms of emergent learning

Aggregate Modeling: the flow of bunnies (or beer) The first kind of tool enables the user to conceptualize the system as "flows" and "accumulations." For example, a changing population of rabbits might be modeled as an "accumulation" (like water accumulated in a sink) with rabbit birth rates as a "flow" into the population and rabbit death rates as a flow out (like the flow of water into and out of the sink). Other populations or dynamics--e.g., the presence of "accumulations" of predators-- could affect these flows. In the limit of the continuous case, this means dynamic systems are written in the language of differential equations. (

Object-Based Modeling: be a bunny The second kind of tool enables the user to model systems directly at the level of the individual elements of the system. For example, our rabbit population could be rendered as a collection of individual rabbits each of which has associated probabilities of reproducing or dying. The object-based approach, while perhaps less efficient at certain kinds of analysis (e.g., translating its results into algebraic form), has the advantage of being a natural entry point for learners. It may well be easier to generate rules for individual rabbits than to describe the flows of rabbit populations. This is because the learners can literally see the rabbits and can control the individual rabbit's behavior. New computational media make this object-based approach practical as a tool for modeling population dynamics and other forms of highly interactive emergent phenomena. (

HubNet as Modeling Environment: be a bunny and watch the beer flow HubNet can itself be a powerful modeling tool. In particular, HubNet can be used as a new kind of object-based modeling environment. In contrast to languages such as StarLogo, Hubnet, as a modeling engine, depends on each of its nodes -- each calculator can be a turtle. While for very large numbers of turtles, StarLogo would be much more efficient, for smaller numbers (classroom-size) the advantage of students being able to test their intuitive behavior and to participate directly in the simulations has powerful learning possibilities. Because HubNet allows the user flexibility about what to pass from the calculators to the Hub, many hybrid architectures are possible as well. If the calculators pass average or aggregate quantities to the Hub, then a new mixed object-based hybrid architecture results. These new architectures open doors to many new kinds of simple classroom activities.

HubNet: Gridlock Meaningful scenario Real-time interaction Each student has an intersection Students try different strategies, from traffic cops to smart cars Students then analyze their strategies for a report of recommendations to the mayor of Gridlock The end report incorporates both object-based and aggregate analysis Traffic flow with no lights Accidents quickly resultLights synchronized Uncoordinated traffic

Other HubNet Calculator Models: DiseaseElevatorsFunction Activity People MoleculesRegression

MIT PDA Participatory Simulations Site

Activity: NetLogo Participatory Simulation Set-up & Orientation – 15 minutes Play! – 20 minutes Post Your Reflections Ken: Future vision and CodeIT Whole-class discussion of posted reflections and general reflections

Activity: NetLogo Participatory Simulation Group Roles: 1 Teacher (server) 2-4 Students (clients) 1-2 Observers [with substitutions if necessary] Reference: Guide to Computer PSAs part-sims-guide.html

HubNet: A Participatory Simulation Architechure “Innovative networked classroom-based technologies connect learners’ evolving intuitions with powerful tools for modeling and analysis” “Learners working in the networked environment make overt and visible their strategies in relation to generating different kinds of emergent behavior” “These tools enable them to analytically understand these systems, in effect working with the mathematics of change without needing to master the formalisms of differential equations.”