Breeds—The Final Frontier
Challenge
Until now you have been addressing all of the individuals in your projects as turtles. You can use breeds of turtles to give different groups of turtles their own unique behaviors. Your challenge is to use the Turtle Commands one-of-breeds-here and if breed = breed1 [statements] or the Observer Command ask-breed1 [statements] to create a project in which different kinds of turtles interact with one another in ways that reflect their identities [MSL Note #20].
For instance, you could build:
· A demonstration of how electrons and protons join to form neutrons.
· A model of a high school dance (With whom will you dance? On what will you base your decisions?)
· A simulation that illustrates how people’s political opinions can be influenced by others.
· A model of a lion killing a zebra (note, this is a bit more difficult than just chasing the zebra). Can you build a more complex ecosystem now?
Possible Explorations
· Brainstorm a list of possible topics for new StarLogo projects.
· Now that you have completed all of the Challenges, you are in the top echelon of StarLogo scholars. Try to integrate many of the concepts that you have covered and apply them to a system that interests you. Think about what you might want to learn from creating a model of your system, and what kinds of questions might arise from that model. Let these ideas guide your creation of many more StarLogo models.
For more information contact Vanessa Colella (vanessa@media.mit.edu) or Eric Klopfer (klopfer@mit.edu).