>One of Hugo's final questions for further research is how teaching
>methods
>using dynamic simulation could be taken down in the age groups -- he has
>done some developmental work with Stella in the last grades of primary
>school. With tools like those David mentions in his message I'm
>convinced
>that something sensible could be done with simulation in the early
>grades
>of primary schooling, too.
>Developing sensible artifacts (aka microworlds and simulation templates)
>and good tasks//problems for younger ages seems to me the minor problem.
>More important is the setting: I'm sure we could run very successful
>projects on modeling in early childhood education, but that doesn't
>necessarily mean that modeling becomes an integrated part of the
>practices
>once the project is over and the researchers leave.
This coming week I am introducing SimEarth to my fifth grade students.
This is a simulation of ecological variables influencing life on a
planet. (My own 12-year old has constructed a Sim planet and nurtured
the evolution of intelligent lizard life in one of his simulations.) I
am interested in seeing what they will make of it and how to present
the concepts that I find so useful from Bateson's Systems Theory to 10
year olds. Easier than fractals, I agree.
Kathie
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\\\You scream you learn////////alanis morissette:jagged little pill
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Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kegoff/index.html