Vensim
Our Vensim model shows the predator vs prey relationship between vegetation, grasshoppers, sparrows, and eagles. Every species birth and death rate are all affected by the other species.
Vensim is good at showing the relationships between each species with arrows, and the overall population of each species. A disadvantage is that, unlike AgentCubes, you cannot see each agent/member of the population move around and interact.
Agentsheets
In our AgentCubes model there are grasshoppers, sparrows, and eagles. The grasshoppers are greenish-yellow, sparrows a brown, and eagles are grey. They all move on the world (plants). Every species has a X percent chance of reproducing. Sparrows have a chance of eating a grasshopper when its next to one, and eagles have a chance of eating a sparrow when its next to one.
AgentCubes is good at showing individual agents/members and how they they interact and move around in an environment. It is lacking in showing the overall numbers of a population, because you can only have a certain number of agents on in the simulation before your computer lags out.
Excel
Our Excel model for this project contains models for plants, grasshoppers, sparrows, and eagles. The plants are at the lowest level of the food chain, and for greater ease of demonstration. The grasshoppers are on the next level of the food chain. The sparrows are above the grasshoppers on the food chain. The eagles are the on the highest level of the food chain. For the purpose of our demonstration, as well as ease of access, we enabled the initial number of plants along with the plant’s rate of reproduction to be adjustable through the use of scrollbars included in the Excel document. The model was made in Excel 2011 and is also confirmed to work in Excel 2008. The data can also be viewed in Google Sheets, albeit not as effectively, as Google Sheets does not support the use of scrollbars not does it support the use of graphs.
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The pros of Excel are that it is practical, easy to use, and widely available. AgentCubes cannot even compete when it comes to the way that Excel is widely available because most people either have Excel or know how to use it. However, Excel does not have a lot of the features that Vensim and AgentCubes have.
