The termites activity introduces students to programming. Students learn that African termites can build tall mounds that are temperature-controlled even though they are weaker than ants and blind. Students first program one termite off-computer to build small mounds and then transferring their program to StarLogo TNG to see how a computer can quickly execute their program using hundreds of termites.

The Epidemic unit with game design differs from the original Epidemic unit in the greater focus on students learning to program.

What's New on Learn page
5/20/09

• Added orientation workshop materials in the Tutorials-Beginner section
• Revised Forest Fire 1 and 2 materials

5/19/09

• Game curriculum student activity reproducibles available as separate document files
• Updated TNG project files to 1.0 version

5/6/09

• Middle School Science link active

Orientation Workshop

Each of these middle school science computer simulation activities take between 1-2 hours of class time. All activities were designed using the "backwards" approach by starting with standards and assessments,  especially the Massachusetts science framework, with a special focus on overcoming misconceptions. All activities have been piloted with 50 eighth graders at an urban school and revised based on feedback and reflection. 

Each activity follows this format: