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A model is a simplified world. In a model, situations are reduced to their simplest meaningful level, with the least number of steps. We can then follow the scientific process of hypothesising, designing an experiment, testing and observation. This can be done very cheaply, regardless of where you are in the world or what access to resources you have.  Modelling is the essence of scientific method. If you have a model, you have science. All the 'big' science in the world today now consists of modelling.

There are so many questions to answer, but each answer is very expensive to obtain. Research and data gathering in the real world can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Modelling can help scientists pinpoint the best questions and the most important real world observations to make. Besides the fact that observation is very expensive, we can also only obtain relatively recent data for many things. Our baselines are simply not long enough in many areas, for example, climate change over the last 100,000 years. Gathering this information is extremely expensive. Models allow a situation where we can set up a world in a simplified form and reduced to its basic elements. We can then make worthwhile predictions based on smaller data sets than would have otherwise been possible when working purely from real world data.

A current example of modelling in the real world is the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change) that was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007. Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. Progress in computing power has enabled the IPCC to work with a whole suite of climate models which include all the basic physics that we know about in the world. Everything is not included in the models, but they replicate the world in basic states. They can then test, for example, the impact on climate of doubling the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They can also extend backwards in time, very cheaply, to obtain much greater baseline data than would otherwise have been possible.

There are a number of simple simulations that come with the Starlogo TNG installation.  You can find them in the Examples folder in the directory where Starlogo TNG was installed.

Some examples include models for erosion, global warming, evolution, enzyme reaction, epidemics, forest fires, osmosis and many more.  Although by far the greatest benefit comes from students designing and creating their own models, the included examples demonstrate the types of things that are possible, and are very valuable in learning how to use Starlogo TNG and as starting points for creating more complex models.

Choose a simulation that is included with Starlogo TNG.  Run it to see what it does.  Study the blocks and try to work out what each section does.  Try modifying different aspects of the model to see the effect.

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This page has been produced by Margaret Meijers.  Questions concerning its content may be directed by email to margaret.meijers@education.tas.gov.au.  This page was last modified on Monday, 07 January 2008. The URL for this page is http://www.mindtools.tased.edu.au/starlogo_tng/modelling.htm .

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
Attribution should include the statement: "This has been adapted from a resource originally created by Margaret Meijers at http://www.mindtools.tased.edu.au"