DESCRIPCIÓN

Se propone a los alumnos la programación de un simulador de ecosistemas en el que mediante el uso de distintos modelos matemáticos de dinámicas poblacionales (modelo logístico, depredador-presa) los alumnos sean capaces de predecir la evolución de un ecosistema. A lo largo de varias etapas los alumnos incorporan a sus simuladores sucesivas especies y factores condicionantes (tasa de crecimiento r, límite K, niveles de oxígeno y dióxido de carbono,…) publicando en cada etapa su versión beta del programa que crean.

REFERENCIAS

[Artículos]

Diseñando un simulador de ecosistemas. Una experiencia STEM de enseñanza de dinámica de los ecosistemas, funciones matemáticas y programación. Revista Eureka sobre Enseñanza y Divulgación de las Ciencias 17(3), 3202 (2020) J.Domènech-Casal. https://wp.me/p25seH-GY

Resignificación STEM y escuela. Escenas ABP desde el Itinerario Minerva. Boletín Ciencia Tecnología y Sociedad 15, 57-65 (2021). Jordi Domènech-Casal. https://wp.me/p25seH-Tu

ANDAMIOS DE APLICACIÓN

  • COL1. Formación de equipos y roles
  • CRI1. Búsqueda y selección de información
  • TEC1. Diagramas de flujo (Pensamiento Computacional)
  • MAT1. Algoritmización (Pensamiento Computacional)
  • MAT2. Resolución de problemas
  • CRI4: Ventajas y desventajas
  • CRI2. Auto y co-evaluación
  • COM3. Proyecto Tecnológico
  • COM5. Ensayo
  • COL2. Conversación y debate
  • E1. Macroestructuras y relación de ideas
  • E2. Mapa Conceptual
  • R1. KPSI
  • E3. Modelo Frayer
  • R2. Rúbrica

APLICACIÓN DEL PROYECTO

Welcome

You work in an enterprise that build informatic programs. You participate in a project to obtain a Governamental Budget.

You are asked to develop a program demonstrating that your enterprise is able to construct a program describing the behaviour of an Ecosystem.

You will not work alone. You will be a part of a team of experts that will work collaboratively with other teams.

To do so, you will need to work on Calc programming, Web Content Management, Licensing…and, of course, Ecology.

Follow the menu to learn how to do so.

Good luck!

Your Team

Your will work as a member of a team, in collaboration with other teams. Each team will be formed by three specialists, each of you expert on a different topic.

Form your teams and choose the speciality of each of the members of the team:

  • Content Management: your responsability is to learn how to develop and curate a platform where your team will publish your results, in order to make it available to the rest of the teams.
  • Licenses: your responsability is to learn everything necessary about publication rights, copyrights, and ensuring that your team is not disrupting Copyright policies nor is a victim of such disruptions.
  • Calc programming: your responsability is to learn everything necessary about Calc programming, graphic plots, and calculations.

Even if you will work often together (Developping Your Mission), experts from different teams can meet to inquiry toghether about process or to get agreements on special concepts (Expert Sessions). It’s critical that when you are in an Expert Session, you try to understand as better as you can, as you are the responsible of your speciality on behalf of your Team.

Remember that the responsability of the expert is not to DO the things. Is to GET THE KNOWLEDGE that your team will need to do the things.

Ressources and informations:

Your Mission

This is a community project. It means that communication with other teams is as important as creating innovations and products.

Here, you will find the general rules, milestones you have to follow and the products you have to create for your project.

General rules

  • The goal of this project is to develop a simulator of the behaviour of an Ecosystem that serves to demonstrates that your Company is able to construct such programs.
  • You will use the Open Office program Calc to construct this simulator. No technical information on Calc programation will be given, it’s up to you to learn this.
  • You will work on teams, but you are allowed (and encouraged) to use the work of other teams, this is a collaborative project, your succes is our succes, and your failure is our succes.
  • It is compulsory to share your work: when you get a milestone accomplished, you have to release your version. You will publish your results and a Diary of the owrk of your Team.
  • If you are not able to reach a Milestone, you can begin from the work of another team. Take in account to respect de Licenses.

Milestones

The project is a gradual construction, following several steps, on each step new requirements will be asked to your simulator. At each step, you will create a new Calc program. You have to include a License to your program, publish it in your platform and describe it in your Diary.

  1. Develop a simulator able to calculate the logistic growing of a population after one generation. Entry Data: K, r, No. Output: N1.
    1. Develop a simulator able to reproduce the logistic growing of a population for 15 generations. Entry Data: K, r, No. Output: N1…N15. License to your program, publish it in your platform and describe it in your Diary.
  2. As in the previous step, but do it for 8 different species in parallel, and with a 8 graphs plotting independly the growing curve. Identify the names of the species, and classify 2 species as producers, 2 as primary consumers, 2 as secondary consumers, and 2 as tertiary consumers.
  3. As in the previous step, but your simulator have to calculate also the Kg of biomass for each generation for each species, and plot it in the same graph of the growing curve. Assume that each species have a number of Kg per individual= 2/r
  4. Your simulator has to build a Biomass pyramid. Plot the Biomass pyramids for all the 15 generations.
  5. Your simulator has to incorporate new Entry Data Fields: 1) Total amount (in grs) of Oxygen in the ecosystem, 2) Total amount of Carbon Dioxyde (in grs) in the ecosystem. These values should be recalculated and plotted together for each generation, assuming that: there is a Oxygen-consuming rate and a Carbon Dioxyde-generation rate that depends on the total animal biomass. There is a Carbon Dioxyde-consuming rate and a Oxygen-generation rate that depends on the total vegetable Biomass. Include these 4 new parameters as entry data and get stable plots for Oxygen and Carbon Dioxyde.
  6. Include predation for the calculation of the population from one generation to the next one. Set it as an Entry Data: the predation rate= number of individuals predated/individuals hunting. Assume that each stage of the biomass pyramid predates only the previous one. Find the parameters to avoid the extinction of any species.
  7. Each team can choose which goal wants to develop for this step. Some ideas: including water constraints in the ecosystem, aplying interspecific ecological relationships (predation, parasitism, simbiosis,..), calculating changes on r or K depending on the circumstances of the environment (water, Oxygen, biomass of the previous stage,…). Specify on your Diary anf Files page the goals you have tried to develop.

Team Duties

  • To keep a Diary of the work of each session (both Team or Expert Sessions). The diary must contain the problems encountered, the proposed solutions and the results obtained.
  • To develop a Calc Program, following the standards and the proposed milestones. To publish a File for each Milestione, correctly Licensed and with information about if it is a Beta (provisional, not tested) or a Release (Definitive, tested).

Expert Sessions

Expert Sessions are sessions where each specialist of each team meets with specialists from other teams, so it means that three Expert Groups will be formed: Content Management Expert Group, Licenses and Rating Expert Group, Calc Programming Expert Group.

In this sessions, the main goal is to share knowledge.

However, some Expert Groups will also have specific tasks to be carried out during this sessions.

There is not a specific Calendar or number of Expert Sessions. It’s up to you to decide when it is necessary to stop the work of the teams and make an Expert Session.

However, it is important to make possible that each team work independently creating new ideas. One Expert Session each Three Team Sessions can be a good initial frequency.

Background on Ecology

Some concepts and tools about Ecology you will need in this project:

  • Logistic growth formula: N1 = N0 + r N0 [(K-N0)/K] describes the growing of a population after one generation of logistic growing.

where N1 is the population after one generation, N0 is the initial population, r the growing rate and K the capacity of charge of the ecosystem.

Calc Programming

Your teams will need to program calculations and plot graphs about the behavior of several populations.

Your teams must be able to:

  • Make calculations, translate ecology dynamics formulas to Calc programs, and plot data.
    • Copy/paste parts of programs, to repeat processes, from your own Files or from external Files.

Your Duties as Calc Programming Expert Group:

  • Learn how Calc can help you to make calculations or graphs.
  • Share information about usual errors or mistakes or correction of errors.
  • Share strategies and tricks to promote the fitness of your teams.

Some interesting ressources on Calc Programming that you should read carefully:

Content Management

Each Team will have to publish his results (Calc Files, Diaries,…) on a web platform of your choice.

This web platform will need to:

  • Offer public acces to everybody.
  • Allow to upload and download documents.
  • Allow to publish text and images.
  • Allow to submit comments and suggestions.

Your Duties as Content Management Expert Group:

  • Get information about the available platforms, its strengthness and weakness, to decide with your team which is the best platform for your work.
  • Supervise that the platform of your team is permanently updated.
  • Exchange with the other Content Management Experts informations and tricks you discover about Content Management.

Some interesting ressources on Content Management that your teams could use to create your Platforms:

Licenses

Your teams will be authors of their work, and it means that you will need to take decisions about copyrights.

Your teams must be able to:

  • Choose an appropiate License to publish the products (Files and Diaries) (in this project, it is compulsory to share, but there are several ways of sharing: allowing/not allowing to copy,…)
    • Decide if you can use or not the products of another team, depending on the Licenses.

Your Duties as Licenses Expert Group:

  • Supervise that the contents offered on the platform of your teams are correctly Licensed.
  • Detect Copyright infrictments (Authors not mentioned, etc…).
  • Construct a phylogenetic tree, representing all the Files generated by each Team, including for each File, the used License. We will call it the Copyright Tree. The tree will have several ancestral Files, and show which Files have been used as a departing point by other Teams, which Files have not been used by anyone, etc.

Some interesting ressources on Licensing that you should read carefully:

Calendar

This project is supposed to take 10 sessions, including two Expert Sessions. No homework will be necessary, but take in account the following calculations:

To do this project, 20 hours of work are necessary. You have just 10 hours.

But you are 3 people in your team. If all of you are working all the time and not simply “supervising” other’s work, it means you have 30 hours.

Evaluation

During the activity, several products that can be used as evaluation tools:

  • The publishing platform.
  • The Calc Files.
  • The diary.

Even if the properties each product should present are described in the Your Mission section, you are strongly recommended to develop a rubric toghether with your students. This rubric should be accorded with them and should include items for the three main topics: populations ecology, Web-publishing and Copyrights, and Cal programming. At the end of the activity, each team should qualify the work of the other teams by using this rubric.

Ressources: Rubric and co-evaluation template tool.

Final Session-Conclusions

When your projects are finished,

1) observe the Copyright trees. Take in account that knowledge is in fact an ecosystem, where new ideas are feed by previous ideas. Which is your opinion about Copyright and Copyleft?

2) try to change some of the values (r, k, No,..) from your simulator. Observe what happens. Ecosystems are interconnected nets that can be modified, sometimes strongly, by a lot of different factors. What do you think about environmental pollution?

3) Use the rubric to qualify the work of the other teams, as described in the Evaluation section. Do you realize some aspects you could have done better?

Didactic guide for teachers

This activity is directed to secondary school 16-18 years old students. As you can see, the site has a WebQuest format, so you can propose the web adress directly to your students to undertake the activity.

Comments and suggestions are welcome. If you add or modify steps from this didactic sequence, please, let me know, your work can be useful for other teachers and students. If you want, I could eventually add your activities as a contribution in this website, toghether with your name and contact details.

This activity is part of the educational C3 Project (Creation of Scientific knowledge) and the Syllabus ABP/IBSE Itinerary ProyectandoBioGeo.

Supporting material for students is available in Catalan (Ressources: Dossier de l’alumne), including a detailed guide for teachers and description of links to catalan syllabus.

An article describing the application of the activity and its outcomes is available in Spanish:

  • Diseñando un simulador de ecosistemas. Una experiencia STEM de enseñanza de dinámica de los ecosistemas, funciones matemáticas y programación. Revista Eureka sobre Enseñanza y Divulgación de las Ciencias 17(3), 3202 (2020) J.Domènech-Casal. DOWNLOAD

Educational Goals

The main educational goals of this activity are to make students understand that:

  • Knowledge is in fact an ecosystem, where new ideas are feed by previous ideas
  • Ecosystems are interconnected nets that can be modified, sometimes strongly, by a lot of different factors
  • Programming allow us to make predictions of the behaviour of complex systems.

Of course, it implies the development of habilities (Calc programming, Web-publishing and licensing, Calculation of ecological parameters), the application of concepts (Ecological parameters, Plant and Animal Phisiology,…) and attitudes (peer to peer, Copyleft, learning from errors,…).

Indications to apply the activity

  • Don’t explain anything to your students. They will be able to learn it alone. Just let them work, and observe their discussions. You’ll have the opportunity to collect the explanations after and from their work. In some cases, global decisions should be taken. Allow them to organize themselves.
  • Let them talk between them, even between the different teams. Science is a social process. Scientists don’t call it copying or cheating. They call it constructing knowledge, and it usually happens in congresses and seminars.
  • Ask your students to think. Explain them you expect their best.

About IBSE (Inquiry-Based Science Education)

Some of the principles of IBSE used to build this site and didactic activity:

  • Scientists generate scientific theories based on evidence, but they do not find definitive answers. Real science has not a book of “correct answers” were you can contrast if your conclusions are correct. “Correct processes” and “Best explanations” is the most you can get in real science.
  • Scientific knowledge and ideas change over time and are open to further revision as our understanding of the world around us evolves. Education doesn’t mean to transmit a false feeling of certainty. Education means to teach how to deal with uncertainty, to take decisions and assume risks. Don’t confirm them if they have the correct answer or not. In case of misunderstandings, just ask them if their process is correct and their results coherent. Answer with questions to their questions, or help them to make better questions. “Correct solutions” or “Wise teachers” won’t be present in their life for ever. Teach them how to arrange without it.
    • Science is a social and creative activity. Constructing and testing hypothesis, interpreting data from different formats and adjusting an abstract model as a consequence, identifying patterns and stablishing relationships, discussing results and justifying conclusions, are key competences that science learning must include as a priority, not only to make them best scientist, but to make them critical citizens.

Calendar and Sessions

The proposed activity has a length of 10-12 sessions, assuming 1h-length sessions. No homework.

Evaluation

You are strongly recommended to keep the “constructing knowledge” approach and follow the didactic activity proposed in Evaluation section to qualify your students’ work.

Examples of the students’ productions

Download a Screenshot of the Ecosystem simulator produced by the students.

Visit a sample of the Website constructed by the students.

Attention to diversity

  • The parallel work in teams and collaborative expert groups allow students to get help from their mates.
    • A spanish-version of the site is under construction and will be soon available.

CLIL/Aicle

This site has been built from a didactic activity performed with spanish students, and in some steps, liguistic clues are given. I’m yet working on this aspect.

More Activities

This activity is part of the C3 Science Education Project for Secondary Education students.

You will find other similar activities at:https://sites.google.com/a/xtec.cat/c3/c3-project-activities-in-english

This activity is part of the Science curricular itinerary for 4ESO in Spanish syllabus Proyectando Bio Geo.