The machine can only perform as its human agent intended it
to perform. I can apply this thought of Pickering’s to my teaching through emphasis that although computing and programs
are helpful tools, they are only as accurate as humans have programmed/coded
them to be. One can easily see this with
the NetLogo tutorial #3 we had to complete; making a mistake in coding or not
defining a process led to an error message or the program not completing what
you wanted it to do. I think this would
be an important takeaway for students working with NetLogo because it teaches
them how to thoroughly understand the code they are writing (in that they need
to know what line does what) and also it teaches them about the processes of
revision in science. All things
scientific are always up for revision or editing or adding to that process or
model in some way. I think I disagree
with Pickering’s thoughts about ‘mangle’ in that, “we have no idea what precise
collection of parts will constitute a working machine, nor do we have any idea
of what its precise powers will be.”
Don’t we know which programs would work better for certain tasks or is
he just generalizing?
The NetLogo model for Climate Change (under Earth Science)
would be a great model for the NGSS, ESS2.D Weather and Climate.
The
standard includes:
This
model shows the flow of energy (particularly heat energy) as it enters the
Earth’s atmosphere and reflects off the ground/clouds/CO2 particles. I like how this model allows the user to
adjust albedo levels (I assume of the clouds and the ground) because that is a
very important factor to heating and cooling on Earth. I also like that the greenhouse effect is
somewhat represented in this model, however I wish that was more detailed. I don’t think this model is appropriately
named because Climate Change is so much more complex than this model, and I
would worry what my students might misappropriate from using this.
I think a large part of why I am not sure if I agree with you on your disagreement with Pickering about the predictability and use of machines, is because I wasn't absolutely sure what he was arguing for about machines. It seems that machines can be anything from simple tools, to computation. Maybe he was saying that machines are part of the revision and improvement process, where if we observe something we didn't think of before, we will have to change the machine to include that new idea? I like the idea of using modeling to predict global climate change. I will be looking into that model. And it looks like coding brings out the complexity of language, as well as the complexity of aggregate systems.
ReplyDeleteI think Pickering is trying to say that we can't predict what material practices will be involved in a new machine before it exists, and that there are physical limitations that may play as large a role in the creation of new machines as human intention. I agree with you and Caitlin that climate change would be cool to model with students. Yes it may be more complex than the netlogo model portrays, but properly scaffolded it would be a really cool opportunity for students to understand our contemporary working models for future climate change. So much of climate science is using past data to make a prediction about the future, its probably the most topical modeling going on and students could be active participants!
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