BBI 2007 Session 2

I love the ant and the message it seems to be delivering to me-I think I get some of it! It is amazing that a seemingly random pattern can quickly become a pattern, if even for a short amount of time.  But in the big picture, I wonder were this is leading to in our discussion of the brain? How are the ant’s behavior and the brain related? I have a feeling in more than one way.

Or is the ant leading us to a nature vs. nurture discussion? Are our genes scripted/programmed to determine behavior and our characteristics? Or does our environment part-take in the process to determine our behavior?Or are we heading to a conversation of the big bang theory?  The statement from the Serendip site that “Quite sophisticated behavior can result from simple interactions of simple things” is a fascinating and intriguing one that has massive implications.  We will see.

And a final comment on the idea that science is an ongoing story.  Brain is a pattern driven processor, it seeks patterns, how it makes sense of the world, it functions on pattern recognition; it is how it sense of the world.  For example, everyone in a room feels uncomfortable when a person telling a story/joke misses the punch line to the story/joke.  The brain is constantly looking for the closing of the story.  It is why good writing start with the main idea followed by supporting details ending with summary/closing paragraph.  

 

It was interesting observing the ant and how it overcame obstacles in its path, how it didn't allow anything to keep it from its purpose, even when it appeared to be boxed in. Sometimes we as humans need to be as singleminded in achieving our purpose. I can see using this in the classroom in talking about character traits. The Game of Life reminded me of my classroom seating arrangement and the change in dynamics that occurred whenever I changed the seating.

I think that this is an activity that students would definitely be engaged by. However, I think it would be really important to guide them through what they might be considering as take aways from the activity. Students, very generally speaking, are more engaged by technology and sometimes the point of what an instructor is trying to impart gets lost in the fun of playing around with the game or the ants. I definitely think that elements of the demonstrations or similar activities could be used in a modified way to introduce students to working in virtuality. The concept of virtuality also lends itself to an understanding of science as story if we accept that scientific observations are stories and thus lie somewhere within the spectrum of the real and the virtual. I think one of the keys to deciding how to present this is to think about the age group I would be instructing. While I think it can be adjusted to suit any age group the level of depth and discussion would differ from younger elementary to more advanced high school students. I speak mostly from experiences with younger elementary students or middle school students. I think inquiry on the part of the student is essential to learning, and these activities lend themselves very well to such a model of instruction.

I found the games to be very interesting because you can manipulate the oucomes for the different games. I especially liked the ant colony game and the chaos game. I will try them and see what happens. I feel the computer can help enhance the student's understanding that perception of the world around them is important. I like how you can manipulate the game of life and how stability can be established out of chaos.

W. Keith Sgrillo I have had my students use these 2 games in the classroom before. I was trying to get the students to view them as models for exploration. One of the things I found interesting was when the students were done playing the games, the majority of the students ended up on the page that showed diagrams and explantions of how the eye is designed. I never really made any sort of connection to it. But today, when we were talking about random resulting in continuity, I thought it was interesting that random exploration of the site ended up with some level of organization. I specifically gave no instruction to the students other than "explore the serendip site only." Even though they got there at different times, most of the students were on that page by the end of their computer session. Next time, I think I will question the students independently as to why they stopped at this specific page on the site. »

Lagton's ant could be very useful in a classroom as a concrete representation of all people having a purpose. It can be used to show our students that we may get lost and stumble through life at times but once we find our purpose we are able to stay focused and on task. We may come upon some roadblocks but we can find our purpose again.

Langstons ant shows that this ant has a purpose and even though you might have a barrier some kind of way it will finish its purpose. I could use this in my class to help my students become critical thinkers. They could make a hypothesis and then tes what they think by doing numerous trials. While observing the different trials they would be able to write their stories and continue through the process to see if their stories have changed. Then as a class they could compare stories and see if one story gets it less wrong.