Sample Tutorial Simulations
From Gamewiki
This page is a place where all our sample AgentSheets simulations can be posted in one place. In the Summer Institute 2010 a combination of these simulations will be taught to both students and teachers.
The following provides a brief description of the simulations with links to more information (including lesson plans that the Summer Institute 2010 participants will create), the AgentSheets project and the online version (applet). Most of the actual simulations can be found in the Sample Arcade.
Contents |
Ants
| Description: This is a simulation of ant foraging. Ants move randomly around until they find food. Once they find food they use standard hill climbing (with nest diffusion) to find their way back to the nest, leaving a trail marked with pheromones behind them. More information: Ants Design |
Avalanche
| Description: The Avalanche simulation is a model of how mudslides (or avalanches) occur. There is a mountain slope with mud particles piled up. Each of the mud particles computes the pressure acting on it, which is a function of the weight of the particles piled up on top of it. This pressure is visualized by mapping its value to a color. If this pressure is more than what the current level of friction can hold, the particles start moving down the hill. The friction can decrease if rain pours down for example, and the wet mud particles have less cohesion with each other. More information: Avalanche Design |
Bridge Builder
| Description: Build your own bridge and experience forces. Remove as many bricks as you can to reduce the cost of constructing the bridge but if your bridge is unstable, it will collapse under the load of cars driving over it. By computing the forces on each of the bricks, the bridge provides you with feedback (some call it "critique" of your bridge design) by colorizing bricks indicating structural tension. More information: Bridge Builder Design |
Contagion / Virus
| Description: An infectious disease model that simulates contagion spreading through close proximity. The speed and extent to which a disease spreads depends on several factors, including the susceptibility of humans in general, the level of immune response of individuals, and environmental conditions which promote or inhibit some or all of these factors. This simulation treats the ability of a pathogen to spread and its virulence as a single probability, rather than attempt to handle the multitude of complex factors. In this simulation, people move randomly; infected people will either recover spontaneously or die. Sick people remain sick and continue to move about until they either recover or die. Finally, the simulation tracks the number of sick people, well people, and deaths. More information: Contagion Design |
| Description: A second infectious disease model that simulates contagion spreading through close proximity. The speed and extent to which a disease spreads depends on several factors, including in this simulation the "age" of the agent. There are 3 different agents (Adults, Kids and "Oldsters") in approximate proportion to the population of the United States. The chance of catching the virus and likelihood of dying from the virus are dependent upon the age of the agent. In this simulation, people move randomly; infected people will either recover spontaneously or die. Sick people remain sick and continue to move about until they either recover or die. Finally, the simulation tracks the number of sick people, well people, and deaths for each age of agent. More information: Contagion Design |
Ecosystems
| Description: The Predator Prey model is a simulation classic. Large fish eat small fish. Small fish eat plants. If the large fish eat too many small fish then the small and large fish will both die eventually. Explore what makes a stable system and what stability really means. Experience the surprising fragility of ecosystems as simple as this one and imagine how much more difficult attaining stability becomes in more complex ecosystems. More information: Predators and Prey Design |
Electricity
| Description: Build electrical circuits (in series or in parallel) out of wires, light bulbs, resistors, buzzers, fuses etc. Simulation built for a project funded by the Greek Ministry of Education and the European Commission.. More information: Electricity Design |
Forest Fire
| Description: The Forest Fire simulation enables you to explore how forest fires spread by letting you set fires to virtual forests with different parameters such as tree density (how dense the forest is), fire spreading probability (if a tree is burning, how likely it is for the tree next to it to start burning too - and in different directions to simulate wind), and fire dying probability (once a tree is burning, how likely it is for the fire to go out – used to simulate how fast the fire goes out). More information: Forest Fire Design |
Fish Farm
Electronic Problem of the Week (ePOW) based on AgentSheets simulations hosted on the Mathforum. Developed for middle school math as part of the ESCOT project (Educational Software Components of Tomorrow) to explore ratios and sampling.
| Description: The first Fish Farm problem is designed to have students apply the concepts of ratio and equivalent ratio to distribute a set number of male and female fish into three ponds. More information: Fish Farm 1 Design |
| Description: In the second Fish Farm, students sample fish to determine the (unknown) male-female ratio in a pond. Explore statistical sampling in a simulation setting. More information: Fish Farm 2 Design |
Fractris
| Description: The Fractris simulation gets students to use different combinations of fractions that sum to 1 in a Tetris-like game setting. More information: Fractris Design |
Heat Diffusion
| Description: This is a simulation of temperature diffusion. Build a house that's energy efficient. See the effect of leaving a door or window open, and decide where the best location for heating and/or cooling units should be. Is it really best to place the heat vents right under the windows? More information: Heat Diffusion Design |
Rock-Paper-Scissors
| Description: Rock, Paper, Scissors was a series of ePOWs designed to encourage students to explore probability. In this problem series, students investigate the concept of probability through an investigation of the fairness of games. More information: Rock Paper Scissors Design |
Rumors
| Description: How do rumors spread? In this simulation, students are asked to predict what the graph of a real-world situation (spreading a rumor) will look like as compared to a controlled situation (only one person spreading a rumor). More information: Rumors Design |
Pi Machine -- NOT FINISHED
| Description: Series of simulations about pi and other geometrical properties of circles and spheres in four parts:
More information: Fish Bowl Design |
More Simulations
- A large collection of AgentSheets simulations including lesson plans at the National Computational Science Institute covering Chemistry Foundations, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Systems Biology, Cellular Biology, Physiology, Ecology and Population Biology, and Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics
- A zipped file containing PDF and MS-Word format lesson plan outlines of projects to simulate avalanche, spread of contagion, population dynamics, predator-prey ecosystem, and wildfire. These projects are intended for middle or high school levels. Download the zipped file.
