I chose the rock cycle. The question posed might be how a certain type of rock is formed. The model can show students exactly how rocks are formed. The model can show the amount of pressure and time needed to create sedimentary rocks, how much heat and cooling to create igneous rocks, and how much time and pressure needed to transform these into metamorphic rocks.
This is a great idea. Water is such an important resource, and it would be a great way to model this to students.
This type of modeling could help show the spread of Ebola during the most recent outbreak. The agents would be infected and non-infected humans. The environment would be the countries that the virus spread to. Examples of the interactions would be type of interaction such as: healthcare worker exposure, cultural rituals of burial, etc. Other agents would be level of precaution taken when interacting with infected individuals, incubation time, refusal of quarantine, etc.
I would choose a balloon full of any gas as the system. The different gas molecules would be the agents. The environment would be the balloon and the temperature and pressure surrounding the balloon. As the balloon is acted on by the temperature and pressure, you would be able to see how the agents (gas molecules) would display the gas laws. I would be interesting if the idea of reactions between gas molecules could also be observed as most gases are not ideal gases.
The CAS I chose was the effect of temperature, humidity, and altitude on aircraft performance.
*The agents are the aircraft, air molecules, water molecules, altitude, and temperature.
*The environment is the atmosphere from ground level to 35,000 feet above ground level.
*The interactions are between the aircraft and the air and water molecules at different temperatures and altitudes AND between the air and water molecules at different temperatures and altitudes.
Living in the Pacific Northwest the lack of water this summer demonstrates how important this topic has become. Students will need to understand how the agents work and if we can affect the outcome for the positive.
With the weather being so dry this year forest fires would be an interesting topic. It would be something current and students could see and understand spread of fire as well as causes. Agents could be environmental factors such as lightning as well as humans and how they would interact with the environment.
Water pollution is the phenomenon I thought of as a complex adaptive system.
Agents: water molecules, pollutants, & water purifiers
Environment: river system with pollutants from a factory & a treatment plant
Interactions: agents will flow randomly while pollutants attack; some agents with be cleaned
I thought about molecular motion in fluids, so thermodynamics. The agents would be the different molecules — looking at gas. I would use either heat or pressure for the environment in looking at how molecules change motion, change the volume and how heat and pressure relate.
I think it would be interesting to do something with the human body or cells-- maybe the immune system response. The agents could be pathogens and white blood cells, the environment could be the human body, and the interactions could be between the agents and the affect on the environment.
I had selected the predator/prey model. My agents are the predator and the prey. Their environment is their ecosystem.
Interactions include the predator eating the prey, and the possibility that an outside source (an additional agent) could impact the relationship.
For example, the predator could be a hawk. The prey could be a field mouse. The ecosystem could be an undeveloped area of a town.
When the area begins to develop (new housing and such) the field mice no longer have a stable environment. The hawks then have to find other prey – perhaps someone’s pet.
Modeling this and how developers must consider their actions in an area can help students to understand how humans can have a direct impact on our own ecosystem.
Great idea. What if you went a step further and demonstrated how chemotherapy affects cancer cells?
I think you’re really onto something here!
The CAS I chose is thermohaline circulation.
- The agents would be water molecules
- The environment is the northern oceans - temperature, salinity, winds
- the interactions would include colder molecules freezing, causing the surrounding molecules to become more saline, more dense, and then sinking. The sinking pulls surface water in, repeating the process. Increased temperatures would cause a slowing of the process, decreased would speed the process.
The phenomenon I described was an earthquake. The agents would be the type of fault and stress, the location, the people in the affected area as well as any structures. The interactions would be between the earthquake itself and the people, structures, and environment.
The question I would study would be the interactions between the agents of gas molecules, aerosols, and the solar radiation energy. How do these factors interact and what is the impact on heating of the atmosphere and Earth’s surface. Then, how does the increase of environmental temperatures affect the behavior of the gases and aerosols?
I thought of a Nitrogen cycle model. The agents would be, nitrogen gas, plants, legumes, nitrates, plant eating animals and predators, bacteria. It would be in a terrestrial ecosystem. it would be random movement of nitrogen gas. As nitrogen gas touches bacteria it produces nitrates. Legues store nitrates and are eaten by animals, Predators eat prey, Nitrates move though food chain and are deposited back to plants.
I really like the idea of putting human factor into the regular predator/prey mix.
I have always been interested in the coastal environment. Agents can be wind, water temperature, air temperature, tidal, and current speeds. Many scientists try to understand how to protect the coasts from hurricane damage, or try to nourish certain parts of the coast that are going more erosion than others which experience deposition.
When thinking about earthquakes and who would be most affected by one I would have to think about an environment close to a fault or plate boundary. The agents would include the life within the proximity of this area. How they would be affected by the earthquake would depend on how close to the epicenter they are, the magnitude of the earthquake, the sustainability of the structure they are in, and the stability of the ground they are on. Those would be the agents that would determine the rate of survival should an earthquake occur.
I like this idea. People are still skeptic of changes in our atmosphere and this would be a great model to show the consequences of these interactions.