Page 107 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Assessment of Modeling and Simulation
5.3 Assessment Instrument
Based on these findings, we developed constructionist teaching material about agent-based modeling with NetLogo meant for the CS students in the 11th and 12th grades of both HAVO and VWO who are preferably no novice programmers but rather somewhat experienced, probably in other programming languages. The teaching material covers all the aspects of the ILO’s of Computational Science we identified earlier (Grgurina et al., 2014b), and addresses not only computational concepts such as programming to implement the model, but also computational practices such as the validation of the model and computational perspectives such as formulating the research question to be answered through the use of the model. Together with this teaching material, we also developed an assessment instrument on which we focus here.
Following the teachers’ suggestions about the desirable form of assessment
(Grgurina et al., 2017) and our findings about suitability of various data sources for
assessment confirming the suitability of project documentation (Grgurina et al.,
2016), we developed an assessment instrument consisting of a practical assignment 5 where students design models and use them to conduct research of phenomena
in another science field, and accompanying rubrics for assessment based upon the project documentation and models themselves (i.e. program code). Guided by the suggestions for the rubrics construction by Wolf and Stevens (2007), from the modeling cycle we first identified the criteria that defined performance as: stating the case and the research question, designing the model and implementing it, validation, experiment, analysis, answering the research question, and reflection. Subsequently, we designed a practical assignment that provides several cases and research questions for students to choose from, a detailed description of the modeling process they need to engage in, and a corresponding rubrics based on SOLO taxonomy.
An example of the cases provided is the question whether sustainable human life is possible on Mars. The students are pointed to the websites of NASA and SpaceX to learn about the current state of affairs and subsequently have to explore whether, after the initial supplies and shelter were delivered, it would be possible to produce sufficient water, air and food to survive and thus whether it would be possible to found a sustainable human colony on Mars. Among other cases are the questions, what is better for traffic flow on a junction: a roundabout or traffic lights, and to investigate the optimal number and task division of bank counters as
105