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August 3, 2000
Today class started with Christina talking with the students and asking
them what they know about forest fires. The students knew most of the
sources of forest fires. Next, the students went outside to begin their
activity. Outside they played a modified version of paper-rock-scissors.
If a person won a game, then they would move from a seed to a bush. If
they
won their next game, then they would become a tree. If they won their next
game, then they would become really big trees. If a student lost a game
at any point, then s/he would go back to the previous level, unless s/he
was a seed. The objective of this activity was to model the way in which
trees in a forest reproduce.
When the students came back inside they discussed the probability of a forest fire if there are no dry trees and if there are only dry tress. Then, the students went to a website that allowed them to virtually burn down trees.[Fire!]. The students would set the fire and let it burn until the computer stopped. The students were suprised to see that when they put in the same percentage, a different number of trees burned on each computer. The students then decided that all of the numbers were correct and that the percentages do not always come out to the same number of trees burned. The students then wanted to find out if they could get a more accurate number if they all put in different percentages and then averaged the outcome of all the class' numbers. The students proceeded to a website called A Better Fire!! This allowed the students to set a forest fire but to also put in other factors, such as humidity and the wind factor. After the students finished the model they went back outside to play the game that they played earlier because they enjoyed it so much. After break, Bob2 taught the students their ecological address. He then broke the river into six segements that he would use to model the cleanliness of the water. STELLA allowed the students to change the amount of pollution in the water. The first model that the students ran was an addition of pollution to a river segment located at the top of the river. The model showed the students' results that would help them decide the best and the worst places to stay if the pollution had really been added to the water. Next, the students made their own model of how much oxygen is dissolved in water. The model allows the students to change how many fish are in the water, how much turbulance there is in the water, and how much pollution is in the water. This model shows exactly how much oxygen is in the water and how it got there.
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