Computer Simulation Modeling Using STELLA
to Enhance Investigative Learning in a Biology Curriculum

Steven K. Rice, Grant E. Brown and R. Paul Willing
Department of Biological Sciences
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308

HOME	PROJECT SUMMARY	INTEGRATING MODELS AND EXPERIMENTS	RESEARCH AND OUTREACH
WHAT IS STELLA?	EXAMPLES FROM UNION	WHAT WE RECOMMEND	CONTACT US

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The goal of this project is to develop and implement computer modeling exercises using STELLA software to improve the ability of students to relate experimental design and results to biological content.  In support of this goal, the project objectives are to combine modeling with experiments:

1. to enhance students' abilities to develop relevant, testable hypotheses, make quantitative predictions that follow from these hypotheses, and design suitable experiments to evaluate their predictions;

2. to facilitate critical and creative thinking in students by developing summative modeling exercises that follow student designed experiments;

3. to cultivate the abilities of students to evaluate the relationships among model assumptions, predictions, experimental evidence, and biological content.

PROJECT SUMMARY

We are developing laboratory experiences that combine modeling exercises with student designed experiments to improve the ability of students to connect biological content (e.g., theories, empirical knowledge) with experimental design and results. Much of the modeling will employ the STELLA programming environment. With this software, undergraduates can generate dynamic computer models that realistically simulate lab and field based experiments. We propose to adapt this software to our present investigative teaching laboratories by developing model-experiment experiences across all levels of the biology curriculum for both majors and non-majors. Modeling efforts prior to experiments will help students design more relevant experiments, articulate specific hypotheses, and generate quantitative predictions that logically follow from their hypotheses. Following experiments, summary models will force students to clarify outcomes and provide opportunities to apply their results to novel situations, much like practicing biologists.

Models and experiments will be integrated into diverse fields of study that include animal behavior, ecology, and plant physiology. We are also expanding three major experimental capabilities: quantitative analysis of behavior using a video image capture and processing system; nitrogen and phosphorus analysis of tissues, water and soils using a continuous flow autoanalyzer; and growth of plants under elevated carbon dioxide conditions in open-topped growth chambers. Each will extend the capacity of our students to carry out meaningful experiments, and each will be used in combination with modeling exercises to enhance investigative learning in several different courses and in independent research.  At left, a senior biology major is collecting soil for her study on the effects of black locust invasion on plant communities in the Albany Pine Bush, a globally significant preserve. This represents a novel strategy for integrating modeling with experiments in teaching laboratories that will strengthen Union College's curriculum and serve as a national model for enhancing investigative laboratory experiences.