Welcome to GUTS-in-Games (GiG)! GUT-in-Games explores how students learn about complex systems while applying game design techniques and concepts to CS models. Specifically, GiG "games" put the user in the role of an interactive agent within a stabilized complex system. GiG is a pilot project under the Project GUTS program. GUTS Summer Camp: Download: Epidemic Intervention game for Summer Camp (right-click, Save link as...) Workshop #1, March 1, 2008: The Trash Terminator Workshop #2, March 15, 2008: Gone Fishin' Workshop #3, March 29, 2008: The Last Arctic Penguin Lessons Learned from GiG pilot program GiG Workshop #1 - March 1, 2008 - Southside Library, Santa Fe, NM Workshop objectives: Students are given a basic version of the "Litterbug" model, and are guided through design inquiry towards adding interactive game elements. The resulting game allows the player to interact with and contemplate the various elements and dynamics of the complex system depicted. Students also learn Starlogo TNG programming skills possibly not previously known to them. Project concept map: Sequence of steps: Click here for a PDF file containing the facilitator sequence notes. Starter model (.sltng file) Student work (right-click, Save link as...): Bailey's game Emma's game Erik's game Franco's game Johnny's game Liana's game Max's game Paul's game (secondary project, first one lost) Soren's game Willy's game1 Willy's game2 Jason Morgan's (facilitator) strafing example game Instructor's models/games (right-click, Save link as...): Final step in prescribed project sequence (.sltng file) Extended version of game with 'V'iew switching, 'S'core reporting, & scoring by minute" (.sltng file) Post-event reflections:: All students were successful in adapting the complex systems model into an interactive game. Several students (most, in fact) were speculating about or already implementing extensions to their games, or in some cases, designing new games based on other complex systems models. Project screenshots:: GiG Workshop #2 - March 15, 2008 - Southside Library, Santa Fe, NM Workshop objectives: Students are given the standard version of the "Fish and Plankton" model, and are guided through design inquiry towards adding interactive game elements. The resulting game allows the player to interact with and contemplate the various elements and dynamics of the complex system depicted. Students also learn Starlogo TNG programming skills possibly not previously known to them. In this project, students may contemplate how a balanced ecosystem of fish and plankton can be impacted by aggressive fishing. Project concept map: Sequence of steps: Click here for a PDF file containing the facilitator sequence notes. Project starter model (.sltng file) Student work (right-click, Save link as...): Matt [a prime example adding a fishing boat for harvesting caught fish] Bailey Harsha Liana Franco Erik Post-event reflections:: All students were successful in adapting the complex systems model into an interactive game. Several students (most, in fact) were speculating about or already implementing extensions to their games, or in some cases, designing new games based on other complex systems models. Project screenshots:: GiG Workshop #3 - March 29, 2008 - Southside Library, Santa Fe, NM Workshop objectives: Students begin with a partial ecosystem model depicting a penguin swimming below the ice eating fish for energy. However, there is no way (at first) for the penguin to get up through the ice and get air. Through guided inquiry students develop an interactive game based on a multi-trophic level ecosystem model. The resulting game allows the player to interact with and contemplate the various elements and dynamics of the complex system depicted. Students also learn Starlogo TNG programming skills possibly not previously known to them. Project concept map: Sequence of steps: Click here for a TXT file containing the facilitator sequence notes. Project STARTER model (.sltng file) Project FINAL model/game (.sltng file) Student work (right-click, Save link as...): Arlo Nathaniel Willie Paul Max Liana Isaac Cody Erik Post-event reflections:: All students were successful in extending the base model to accomodate the two environments -- above the ice and below the ice. As hoped for, the students discovered how being in the middle of a food chain informs one's understanding of the complex-system nature of ecosystems. And, students learned a variety of new Starlogo TNG tricks and methods. Project screenshots:: Lessons learning from GUTS-in-Games pilot program Greg Malone 4/1/08 Objectives: The three-session GUTS-in-Games (GiG) pilot program (March 1, 15, 29 2008) set out to explore how complex systems models and concepts used in Project GUTS curriculum could be adapted into a serious game format and taught to GUTS students in extracurricular workshops. The intent was to see whether such a program could enhance student understanding of complex systems, while further building their model programming and design skills. Student participant demographics: Students were all middle school aged (grades 7-8), 3 out of 10 student participants were female. No socio-economic or other data was collected, but might be available through Project GUTS data. The workshop sessions: Individual session reports can be found at: http://projectguts.org/files/GUTS-in-Games1448/index.html Each workshop was attended by 6-10 students, all self-selected. Over 3/4 of the students returned for each workshop. The remaining students made one event, and did not return, either due to scheduling conflicts, spring break interference, or perhaps lack of interest. However, for all the students that participated, none were observed to be bored or disinterested. Complete engagement was the norm, and was observed and commented on by the assisting facilitators. Snacks and beverages were provided for each event. We did not have internet connectivity at the venue, Southside Library, but that was not a limitation. Workshop #1, March 1, 2008: The Trash Terminator Students adapted the basic "Litterbug" model into a serious game, adding a user controlled agent who could help collect the trash and points. Several unique modifications were made to the litterbug model to make it a more visually dynamic model. In the end the students were able to experience first hand the challenges and potential difficulties of being an active participant-agent in a highly dynamic complex system where competing rules-systems (litterers and cleaners) keep the pot stirred. Workshop #2, March 15, 2008: Gone Fishin' The basic Fish and Plankton ecosystem/genetic drift model was adapted to include a "fishing net" that could collect fish in the system and retrieve them to a boat hovering overhead. In the end the students were able to interactively explore how or if a balanced ecosystem is impacted by overfishing. Workshop #3, March 29, 2008: The Last Arctic Penguin An all-new ecosystem model was presented to the students for game modification. The starter model included a user-controlled penguin agent that must eat from the fish population under the ice and surface for air periodically. Students added a variety of basic features including predators above the ice (polar bear) and below the ice (shark). In the end, the students experienced the difficulties of being an agent in a complex system that includes a predatorial food web and environmental constraints. Event promotion observations: We fairly strongly promoted the first and third sessions in the week prior, using flyers, emails, and special events (field trips) to get the word out. Attendance for those session were maxed out at 10 students each. The second session did not have similar advantages, and produced only six attendees. Key reflections: Several of the self-selected students expressed a high interest in the "gaming" aspect of the program. Most of those were boys, with the exceptions of Liana (MDS) and Bailey (Ortiz), girls who expressed a very strong interest in game design and exploration. This factor must be considered when evaluating student motivation. The participating students demonstrated strong understanding of complex systems, and importantly understood why it was crucial to not change the modeled complex systems in the base models, but rather simply add an interactive player-agent to the model's existing mix. The result was an enhanced complex systems model and a dynamically interesting interactive game. Starlogo TNG "programming tips and tricks" were a key element that the students gained advanced modeling skills with. The programming concepts introduced provided an extended toolset for the students to use in future modeling projects. For example, aging trash utilized graphical representation of agent variables, the 'magnetic' fish net utilized shared and transferred agent rules procedures between different classes of agents, and the subterranean/deep water environment of The Last Arctic Penguin illustrated how to think multi-spatially when designing a model. Also in that project, students also learned how to represent agent data in alternative visualization modes when they had the swimming penguin cast a "shadow" on the ice above for easier tracking. Starlogo TNG, as the primary modeling tool for GiG, was adequate for the intended purposes, and was approachable and highly accessible to all participants. TNG's visualization method provides compelling feedback to student designs and explorations. In the third session, a visitor student who had never seen or used TNG before did a fairly good job of keeping up with the session curriculum and experimenting w/ the program, though he did at one point eventually reach a limit at which point he just focused on tweaking what he already had working. Based on the limited dataset of the GiG pilot program, it would be reasonable to expect that students that participated in GiG sessions have an increased affectation for modeling complex systems, a higher understanding of the dynamics and properties of complex systems, and an enhanced skill-set for approaching complex systems projects and studies. Further investigation: It would be interesting to take a group of student participants that did *not* explicitly self-select themselves for GiG, and see how they would respond in the areas of affectation, understanding, and skills development related to complex systems modeling. An opportunity for that might exist in the upcoming summer workshops.