Interactive numerical modeling in the classroom: challenges and rewards (Centre Greene Building 2, CTTC)

Interactive numerical modeling can be a powerful tool for the students to learn and apply many important fundamental concepts in science and mathematics. However, teachers desiring to add numerical modeling tools to their pedagogical tool kits face many daunting challenges. Developing and using such models requires four types of activities to be carried in parallel by the teacher: understanding the science to be modeled in a quantitative way; understanding the systems concepts to be used; developing a pedagogical plan on how a model will support students' learning of specified objectives; and using the software to meld these three considerations into a working classroom tool. And of course, the underlying science, our knowledge of how students learn, and the software continue to evolve. In this presentation, we offer some suggestions on how to overcome these challenges to using modeling in the classroom. We will demonstrate a few Earth-System-related models updated to STELLA Version 9.0 to illustrate both the power of interactive modeling and how these challenges have been addressed in specific cases. (For those not familiar with the STELLA software, it is a moderately friendly numerical modeling system with a number of built-in documentation, teaching, and presentation tools. See http://www.hps-inc.com/ for software details.)