Page 119 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Assessment of Modeling and Simulation
validated their models to some extent and almost a third of them reached the relational level, e.g. saying in case of life on Mars (case Mars 4), “... maintenance of buildings and solar panels ... are not relevant for the results of our model but could play a small role for our research question.”
Experiment, analysis and answering the research question. Again, here we see
a great variation in the scores with the VWO groups significantly outperforming
the HAVO groups. While 15 out of 17 VWO groups performed an experiment
and a number of them extensively employed the Behavior Space (a feature of
NetLogo allowing for systematic parameter sweeping and recording the results
of each model run), out of the eight HAVO groups only three provided evidence
of performing an experiment and none of them used Behavior Space. The
quality of the subsequent analysis of the results and the answers to the research
question seem to be directly related to the quality of the experiment. Analysis
and answering the research question are the only aspects of the assignment where
a total of four VWO groups reached extended abstract level. The VWO group
exploring the case of bank counters (case Bank 3) notes, “assigning the tasks to
specific counters leads to specialization of employees ... this division of labor leads 5 to faster and more efficient performance: by performing the same task all the time,
the employees become specialized in particular tasks allowing them to carry out
these tasks quicker. Conversely, non-specialized employees will carry out their tasks
slower: because they get varying tasks all the time, they lack specific knowledge and
need to look up things for the customers, causing the task to last longer. Because of
this, tasks in scenarios 2 and 3 would take longer. However, the question is to what
extent does this counterbalance the efficient engagement of the bank counters. This,
then, is something that would require further research.”
Reflection. The HAVO groups and VWO groups perform similarly. Interestingly, none of the groups in the 12th grade VWO reached relational or extended abstract level. One of the 11th grade VWO groups reaching that relational level explored evacuation of a burning building (case Fire 1) and wrote in their wish list, “What we’d like to implement in our model is turtles making a clear choice what emergency exit to take. ... Sometimes they seem to doubt what exit to take, walk back and forth between the exits and eventually wait for too long — dead through fire. That’s a pity because in reality, they could’ve survived.”
Logbooks. In one of the schools the students were asked to keep a logbook, and in the other they were not, so the logbooks were not assessed separately. However, following the assessment finetuning guidelines, we read the submitted logbooks looking for evidence of answers to other questions.
117