The
first chapter of Pickering’s book, “The Mangle of Practice,” challenges the two
conventional views of science as either humanist or anti-humanist and argues
instead for a ‘mangled’ view, where human and material agencies are
interconnected. While his writing is at times obscure, I think he makes
important points suggesting that causation in science is not clearly linear,
and instead that contemporary knowledge is driven by both human intention,
culture, and the history of material practice. I think this is an important distinction, as many scientists
are wont to believe that knowledge is purely objective, without consideration
for the human biases and intentions that drive their questions and
interpretation of experiment.
I
think that Pickering would consider Netlogo, and computational modeling as a
whole, to be a material practice of science that is inextricably tied both to
modern human culture’s value of technology as well as a broad history of
practice and discovery. Just as
the adoption of is Netlogo driven by culture, Netlogo and computational
modeling can in turn impact human’s potential for new knowledge and expand the
realm of answerable questions by providing power beyond raw human
brainpower.
In
my classroom, I would hope to capitalize on this expanded potential and help
students access more complicated topics at a younger age. The models that I especially enjoyed
were Tumor (MS-LS1-3: Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system
of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells), Bug Hunt, Peppered Moth
(both of which address: MS-LS2-4: Construct an argument supported by
empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem
affect populations, MS-LS4-4: Construct
an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of
traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and
reproducing in a specific environment, and MS-LS4-6: Use mathematical
representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to
increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time), and Wolf Sheep Predation (MS-LS2-1: Analyze
and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability
on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem, MS-LS2-2: Construct
an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across
multiple ecosystems.)
Questions:
Where do you place your self on the humanist to anti-humanist scale (with
‘mangled’ being somewhere in the middle)?
How do you think Netlogo will impact human practices and scientific
culture in schools?
Modeling question:
What is the best way to model weather prediction? What information is necessary for
prediction? Do we need more
weather balloons? Or is it
possible to create a new (more sustainable) method of gathering the necessary
information?
Interconnectivity has become a large part of my understanding of science, since I entered the discipline. Weather and climate affects environment, which affects organism biology, which affects other organism biology, and etc. In terms of studying Science, it is probably impossible to separate human and material (I'm including machine here as well) agencies. No matter what, humans are going to have a little bias in what they are observing and analyzing. However, we can try to be as objective as possible. So, I would probably count myself in the mangled area of your scale. I also asked about modeling weather (we all seem to have weather on the brain this weekend). I don't know if more balloons would help, and according to the responses on my blog, it seems that there are so many variables that go into weather patterns, a simple model would be impossible, we would need multiple models or a massive model.
ReplyDeleteTo add a bit more on weather predictions and your sustainability comment, the weather balloons are recaptured after each release. If one happens to go astray, there is an informative label about why this weather balloon is an important scientific instrument and where the finder should return it to (the instrument box, a radiosonde, is reusable).
ReplyDeleteHere is a helpful tidbit from my favorite weather source: http://www.noaa.gov/features/02_monitoring/balloon.html
Currently we do not have the technology to make a "better" forecasting system. The weather balloon gets us the most vital information for us to use because it gathers a kind of 3D picture of what is happening in the atmosphere. Stationary units fail us in that sense, as do satellite and radar information which are really only helpful for tracking large storms in real time. As Caitlin mentions, more balloons might not necessarily help us in understanding the complexity of weather patterns. However, more data gathered would get us a better picture of what is happening throughout the atmosphere and perhaps more accurate information could get gleaned from that.
I just really love atmosphere sciences :3
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ReplyDeleteTo your question pertaining to the impact of NetLogo, I think it will progressively become for significant and important in schools as more computational modeling programs and topics become available. I do think they should be used in school because they provide students with a whole to level of interactiveness with science that was otherwise absent before and this engagement is critical for students motivation, interest in science, and an awareness that science is not just some far off phenomena that does not affect them or they do not affect it.
ReplyDeleteI do think lab experiments are still very important and enjoyable but maybe in the future, there can be a computational component where the students take what they observed in the experiment (physical changes) and then see if their ideas were supported by a computational model of what is happening chemically. Overall I am hoping that with computational modeling becoming more prevalent in schools, lab experiments will become much broader and allow for students to take more initiative (not just follow a set procedure) and for higher levels of engagement. I think overall, the view of science will change in the fact that people will see it as more dynamic, changing, and manipulatable.
I would definitely place myself in the mangled part of the spectrum, since I hold a pretty strong situated theory of learning. I thought it was pretty compelling how Pickering went one step further than most of the situative writings I've read by considering not only human agency and material tools, but the agency of the natural world as well, and viewing them all as equally powerful and influential components of our understanding of the world.
ReplyDeleteI share Pickering's view that our knowledge and interactions with the world and one another are constrained by the tools and practices we have at our disposal. As NetLogo is brought into more classrooms in increasingly meaningful ways, I think that it will serve as a new tool/practice that affords students the opportunity to partake in advanced reasoning, in "level-headed" thinking, and in sophisticated inquiry.