The Plot Thickens
Challenge
Often, interesting patterns emerge from the rules that the turtles follow in your StarLogo projects. Observing the evolution of these patterns can be captivating. But direct observation rarely provides reliable quantitative information about the whole turtle population. Your challenge is to design and implement an innovative method to display turtle information. You might begin by creating a line graph, using the StarLogo Plot Window to visualize the changes in your model over time, or using global monitors to keep track of aggregate information about your turtles. After exploring these built-in features, create your own graphic illustration using the turtles themselves to display information in a meaningful way.
In this Challenge, you can build your illustration in one of your own projects or a sample project. Use the commands setx positionsety position
Once you have created a new graph, verify that the turtles are displaying information in the manner that you intended. One way to determine the accuracy of your illustration is to open up the Turtle Monitors. Can you figure out if all of the turtles are in the right place? What information is most clearly displayed in your graph? What information is missing? Notice that in the two sample projects you can restart the simulation after viewing an illustration by pressing the
Possible Explorations
· Which type of graphic illustration allows you to make better predictions about the system?
· How do your graphs differ from StarLogo’s built-in tools (global monitors and time series plots)? When are you likely to use the plotting tool? Your own graph? When is the global monitor most useful?
· Can you think of other ways to implement turtle-based graphs? Perhaps you could ask the turtles to gather in circles that show their state. Or you could ask the turtles to line up using a different variable.
· Try modifying one aspect of the project that you are using. Can you see the effects of this change in your graph?
For more information contact Vanessa Colella (vanessa@media.mit.edu) or Eric Klopfer (klopfer@mit.edu).