3/9 Modeling the standards

In Chapter three, diSessa discusses how students and teachers, and even schools, should have ownership over the programs and the microworlds that are built using the programs. In class, we have discussed what computational literacy can mean, and what it would have to be in order for computational modeling to be a success in the classroom. After looking through the Practice TCAP tests and samples, I noticed that there are many types of literacies that students are expected to master, such as graphs and basic mathematics, scientific language and terms, and even understanding what a questions is asking. Computational modeling, such as Netlogo or Boxer, can be a great resource tool to lead students to mastering these literacies. Most of the authors we have read so far for class, would agree that an ideal computation program would be flexible and easy for students to explore scientific concepts and mathematics. However, how do we make teach computational literacy to students when there is limited time? Should there be a separate class? Or, could giving students enough time in class be enough to let students learn coding languages?

One thing that jumped out at me in the Practice and sample questions was that many of the sample questions from the Practice Test and samples asked students to draw conclusions from graphs. The Netlogo program and models are valuable and useful when teaching to standards, because it can teach this particular literacy and mathematics side of the standards. Netlogo and the ViMAP turtle programs create graphs and often use math functions to code and conduct a microworld. Teachers can take advantage of this by using scaffolded worksheets to have students focus on that part of the modeling activities.

We have also discussed how we would have to create a balance to make sure students learn the material that follows the academic standards and that will be on the standardized tests. Population dynamics, environmental factors that affect the populations, and analyzing graphs seem to be several main themes across the Tennessee grade 8 standards and test sample questions. I can see why Netlogo models, like the wolf sheep model, are so popular. It allows the programmer to manipulate different environmental factors, such as the initial number of organisms, how fast the environment can change (grass growth), and the code can be flexible, adjusted, and added to. Room for revision, which is a NGSS practice standard, and microworld growth and development, are important, according to diSessa. Students and teachers, then have more opportunities to be creative and try new ideas. Harlow from one of our last readings talked about student creativity as a resource teachers believe about students as they teach. Creativity can have its advantages and disadvantages, but diSessa argues that it is a necessary tool to have for students to learn as much as they can from computational modeling. However, I feel that Netlogo gives natural boundaries that would keep a student on track. Or should Netlogo assignments always come with scaffolded worksheets? 

Science question: How could blood pressure and blood flow be modeled?