Collaborative, computer-supported exploration of animal communication: the bees’ tail-wagging...

8/14/2019 Collaborative, computer-supported exploration of animal communication: the bees tail-wagging dance

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Final Proposal

"Collaborative, computer-supported exploration of

animal communication: the bees tail-wagging dance"

Investigators

Chandan Dasgupta ([email protected])

Diego Maniloff ([email protected])Jingmin Shi ([email protected])

Marco Triverio ([email protected])

Contact information

http://code.google.com/p/united-nations/wiki/ProjectStatus

[email protected]

Abstract

We propose a computer-supported activity that facilitates the collaborative discovery of the bee tail-

wagging dance. This natural phenomenon stands as a unique example of communication in the animalkingdom and its discovery is a quintessential model of the scientific methodology. Middle school studentswill be immersed in a virtual environment that allows them to observe, hypothesize, experiment, and

discuss findings connected to the waggle dance. Aside from the mechanism of the dance itself, our activity

promotes learning about the scientific process, control of multiple variables, polar coordinate systems, andteamwork.


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Introduction

Human beings live in a dynamic world which keeps changing every moment. In order to make sense ofthis dynamic world, we have an insatiable urge to understand how things work and how we could benefit

from them. One of the things that has captured human attention for a long time is animal communication.

Every animal species has its unique way of communicating and their own set of rules and methods by

which they make this happen. Some have special structures (e.g. wet noses, echo-locators, etc.) toaccomplish the functions they need for survival (e.g. locating food sources, predators, etc.). Understandingthese special structures and their function has resulted in a range of biology-inspired designs [15, 16, 17,18]. It is important that we make students aware of the different forms of animal communication so that it

becomes a part of their mental model at an early age.

Contemporary goals of science education require that the students not only learn the facts, laws, and

principles but instead understand science as a principled process of inquiry [20]. They need to be part of

directing some of the inquiry and also participate in discussions about their means of inquiry andsignificance of the results [19]. Another important thing to keep in mind is that students enter a learning

environment with certain predefined conceptions. Often, these are ignored as misconceptions but researchindicates that these often interfere with learning and so the instructions should be designed to help the

students confront these predefined conceptions and replace them with more accurate ones [16].

In this paper, we propose a computer-supported activity that introduces students to a unique example ofanimal communication. The activity scaffolds the students' discovery of the bee tail-wagging dance by

guiding their inquiry process across four phases with the help of goal directed group tasks, discussions,

and experimentation.

Related work

Our activity is founded on the scientific discoveries of the bee tail-wagging dance by Karl von Frisch andhis collaborators over the course of more than 50 years [4, 5, 6], and recently supported by a quantitativedescription [21]. As much as we strive to abide by the evidence they have gathered, we also try to

reconstruct part of the experience that Frisch went through in his endeavors by imitating certain aspects ofthe methodology he used. This imitation helps us setup an activity where the students feel like they are

playing the role of a scientist, thereby making the learning experience more authentic and engaging.

Moher et. al [11] and Johnson et. al. [12] implemented a first-person simulation of the bee tail-wagging

dance and asked students to "uncover a mystery contained within the simulation". Their game-like

scenario resulted in arbitrary rule sets and group discussions were necessary to understand the dancemechanism. We also suspect that the 3D side view of their implementation, without the scaffolding of a

2D "map" representation, made it difficult for students to decipher the dance.

Following the ideas in [13], our work encourages both laboratory and natural experimentation. Wheneverpossible, scientist directly manipulate variables, such as the location of a food source; in other cases, wehave to wait for the right conditions to hold, such as a particular azimuth angle of the sun with respect to

the hive's.

In [10], Antle et. al show that the use of tangibles promotes "a combination of epistemic and pragmatic

actions which support mental problem solving". We attempt to draw from these findings by incorporating

tangibles in a reinforcing phase of our activity.


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Our proposed technology has been inspired by [8] and [9], which make use of inexpensive, readily

available components. With simple variations, the activity can take on different versions according to the

budget available.

Learning goals

This project aims at teaching several interdisciplinary goals:

1. The scientific process: our activity helps students think scientifically and highlights that the process of understanding a phenomenon involves a series of trial and error iterations wherebydifferent investigators formulate a number of hypotheses, most of which are discarded until

narrowing down to the right explanation.2. Control of variables: in this process, children also learn that phenomena can be explained in terms

of different factors. In order to comprehend the interaction of these, kids are encouraged to

experiment by means of changing one variable while keeping others constant.

3. Polar coordinates: learn about the use of polar coordinates in a 2D plane to indicate the locationof an object in terms of a distance and an angle.

4. The bee waggle dance: learn about a particularly interesting language in the animal kingdom,namely the bee tail-wagging dance [4, 5, 6], and its purpose. See how bees possess a specialized

and efficient communication system that allows them to correctly locate food sources at very largedistances from their hive. Contrary to what many people may believe, animals have their own

sophisticated language that enables them to communicate effectively.5. Working in teams: The students learn how to work in groups, collaborate and share ideas to

achieve a common goal. This is important because they need to understand that while working ingroups, members have to be considerate of the others' viewpoints and work in a constructive way

[1].

6. Physical measurements: in order to put the students in the role of scientists they will be put incharge of operating instruments.

Learning population

This project mainly aims at students in the fifth to seventh grades (10-13 year old). Our description

focuses on a classroom setting; however, we wish to note that the activity can be easily adapted to

alternative educational environments, such as museums. This latter setup can accommodate a wider age

range of learners, for whom the level of difficulty can be tailored by varying levels of scaffolding.

The only requirements for successful participation are basic math concepts such as angles, the notion of a

variable, and Cartesian coordinate systems. Knowledge of polar coordinate systems is not necessary butmay be helpful in certain parts of the activity.We justify our choice based on Jean Piaget's works that indicate the capability of this age group toformulate hypotheses. In agreement with the Illinois Learning Standards [1, 2] and the American

Association for the Advancement of Science's Benchmarks [3], our learning goals match the target

learners' expected knowledge by the end of 8th grade.


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Instructional plan

We consider a 4-phase design that introduces students to the general idea of communicating a target'slocation, promotes the scientific discovery of the bee waggle dance, and reinforces the concepts learned.

The class will be divided into groups of 4 students, which will remain the same throughout the activity.

Phase 1: Motivating students to think about bee communication - 40 minutes

Description. In this phase, we first make the students aware of the phenomena of bee communication and

work towards finding out what predefined conceptions (if any) they have about it. We will provide eachgroup of 4 with a map as the one depicted in Figure 1 (see also A.1.1, A.1.2, A.1.3, and A.1.4 for more

details). Each map will show: 1) an imaginary "traveler", 2) a single reference point (such as a house) asthe only known object to the traveler, and 3) a goal. The group's task is to guide the traveler to the goal bymeans of a plan. Students will note down their plans on a whiteboard. This phase will be executed

iteratively, whereby each time we will suggest students to reduce the number of steps in their plans.

We conclude with a question that will lead students into the second phase: How would bees communicate

the location of an object?

Technologies.

Paperboard maps that will be distributed to the groups ($10). Whiteboards will be allocated to each group, or alternatively large paperboard panels to note

down the plans ($20). (The whiteboards will also be used in the following phases as the discussion

board.)

Assessment. After the end of this phase, we will have a group discussion session with all the students.

Every group talks about their set of instructions, the iterations and the reason behind the decisions in each

iteration. This will help us understand the mental model which the students have developed as a result ofthis activity and segue into the next phase where they will be required to focus on the way bees

communicate and identify the variables that are involved.


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Figure 1: Example of a map with an imaginary traveler, a reference point, and a goal. The only element

known to Bob is the reference.

Phase 2: Discovering the variables involved in the bee language - 40 minutes

Description. This phase will take place in a setup as the one shown in Figure 2. The general idea is toobserve how bees can communicate a plan analogous to those from Phase 1 in a very efficient and robustmanner. The classroom will be equipped with a "virtual hive" surrounded by three flat-screen displays in a

prism configuration, as shown in Figure 3. These screens provide a magnifying view into what happens

inside the hive. The displays will show a dancer bee performing the tail-wagging dance and a foraging beewatching her. All three screens display identical simulations. At the end of each dance, a buzz sound will

be played from a set of speakers to give the idea that the foraging bee has flown away, which will be

accompanied by visual feedback from the screens.

The characteristics of the dance that takes place inside the hive will respond to the following [4, 5, 6]

external variables:

1. the hive's own location within the classroom2. the location of a food source, which can take the discrete levels: very close / near / far away3. the location of a projected light that will simulate the sun. These external variables are realized in

a classroom-size implementation as described in the technology section of this phase.

The task will be setup in an iterative manner, where each group will observe an instance of a dance andthen gather to note down their findings on a group notepad and map (see A.2.1 and A.2.2 for details). Thenotepad will contain a template that will drive students' attention to certain elements of the simulation.

This template will be varied from iteration to iteration, asking for finer details about what was observed.


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As an example, a template for the first iteration may have a space for students to roughly draw the shape

of the dance they saw, while a template for later iterations may require students to note down details about

the shape such as the length of the middle segment, etc (see A.2.2 for details). Together with the template,

each group will draw a map with the location of all the elements (hive, flower, etc). This map will evolvewith increasing details as the iterations advance (i.e.,students will be encouraged to annotate their maps

with distances, angles, etc., providing a connection with the similar problem introduced in Phase 1).

The facilitator will lead a general discussion with all groups and fill out the first two columns of theDiscussion Board (see A.4.1 for details - adapted from [22]). The elements noted down here will highlight

general findings and assumptions that will motivate the design of experiments in Phase 3.

Technologies.

Three LCD screens, which will be made into a prism to represent the hive,($80 each); (to cut thebudget we would choose to use two screens)

One disco ball controlled by a clock motor, which will project the sun (a light spot) onto threewalls of the classroom, these three walls will have markings that will serve as a gradation for thesun's azimuth ($30)

Static flower equipped with a light bulb, which will light up when active (meaning it is a source offood) ($5)

Surround sound speaker system, which will play a simulation sound of a bees flying, by givinglower or higher volume to simulate the bee flying farther ($20).

Assessment. The group discussions as students are filling the details in the template and updating theirmaps helps them in learning from one another. The amount of detail represented in the map and the

accuracy of the information in the template will indicate the knowledge that they have gained from this

phase.


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Figure 2: Classroom setup showing the virtual hive and realization of the external factors.


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Figure 3: The virtual hive in detail. The surrounding flat-screen displays allow more students to observe

the happenings inside.

Phase 3: Experimentation - 45 minutes

Description. The aim of this phase is to immerse students in the simulation and allow them to

collaboratively formulate hypotheses and verify them through the design of experiments. To this end,students will play more active roles in a simulation similar to the one in Phase 2. A student can play the

role of 1) a flower, 2) the operator of a measuring instrument, or 3) a general observer. A student playingthe role of a flower will wear an electroluminescent T-shirt and his position will be tracked so that the

shape of the dance simulated inside the hive is meaningful. This student will have the freedom to roam

about the classroom and directly influence the shape of the dance in the hive. Instrument operators will beable to choose their instrument from a set of a distance measuring tape, a protractor, and a thermometer.We note here that we introduce the thermometer purposefully so as not to directly indicate to students

which are the relevant variables, much in the same way that a researcher chooses what to measure, we

intend put this decision in the hands of the students. A general observer will have the task of noting downthe happenings in the hive (as this student will be nearest to the LCD displays), and can also note downthe position of the sun as read from a grading system that will be drawn on the projection walls (please

refer to Figure 1 for details).


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Prior to beginning this phase, each group will be given an Experiment Journal (see A.3.1 for details -

adapted from [22]) in which to specify the aim of the experiment and the variables to change, their

prediction, and the actual observation. In terms of scheduling, each group will take turns to participate in

the simulated environment. During the time a group is not directly interacting with the simulation,observations can be noted down or refinements can be made to the maps or notes from previous iterations.As done in Phase 2, the facilitator will lead discussion with all the groups and note down some general

results on the last two columns of the Discussion Board (see A.4.1 for details - adapted from [22]).

Technologies.

Three LCD screens from previous phase, which will be made into a prism to represent the hive($80 each); (to cut the budget we will choose to use two screens in our lowest cost plan)

Electroluminescent T-shirts which will be worn by the "flower" student. These will light up toindicate a source of food is active ($30)

Two possibilities for the measuring instruments:o Low tech approach: big protractor from normal math class which can be used to measure

angles ($10); tape to mark the distances ($5); ambient thermometer ($10)o High tech approach: velcro attachable instruments which can be connected to a powered

T-shirt using techniques similar to [8] (~$30 for T-shirt, ~$40 for EL components) Two options for position tracking:

o Low tech approach: Infrared camera (possibly Nintendo Wii Remote [9]) to track theposition of the "flowers" played by students (~$40)

o High tech approach: RFID tracking system (~$3000)Assessment. The students have to plan their experiment before they execute it. They have to write down,in a science journal, their hypothesis, how they plan to test it, their prediction about the outcome of thetest. Once they execute their plan, they will go back and reflect on what happened and write down their

observation and reason for deviation from their prediction (if any). This science journal will reflect the

groups' understanding of the underlying mechanism of the bee dance and their hypothesis and predictions

will reflect their increasing understanding of the bee dance phenomena. Also, the manipulation of theorientation distance measurement will reflect their learning of the polar coordinate system. By following

this structured way of experimentation, students also learn about the scientific process and understand the

way real scientists do their experiments. Also, the iterative nature of the experiments make it clear to thestudents that they are not expected to be "right" the first time. The discussions and journal-updating

activity act as formative assessments and help the students in refining their mental model while they are

engaged in the activity.

Phase 4: Enactment and reinforcement - 40 minutes

Description. This phase connects back to the initial phase of the activity. Using a similar setup to the oneshown in Figure 1, we will have our running groups "instruct" the virtual foraging bee where to fly using a

tangible device. Taking turns as done in the previous phase, groups will discuss what the shape of the

dance should look like according to the location of a static flower (the same one used for Phase 2). Basedon these discussions, students will suggest alternative hypotheses advocating different dance shapes andwill manipulate a tangible once they reach consensus within their group. The tangible is used as a means

to communicate with the bees using their own language. A buzzing sound and visual feedback from the


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flat-screen displays will indicate whether the shape chosen was correct. This phase also progresses in an

iterative fashion, interchanging action with discussion and note taking.

Technologies.

Three LCD screens from previous phase, which will be made into a prism to represent thehive($80 each); (to cut the budget we would choose to use two screens)

Tangibles made of flexible wire, which will represent the shapes of bees waggle dance inside thehive ($10)

Two possibilities of tracking the shapes change:o High tech approach: the infrared camera (Nintendo Wii Remote [9]) system used in

previous phase ($40)

o Low tech approach: use the resistance and some other cheap electronic components, bycalculating the resistance's changes to track the length changes of the middle segment [7]

($5).

Total cost of the activity: ~$300 (low cost option); $3500 (high cost option, by using RFID tracking

system). Laptop not included.

Assessment. The students have to plan their enactment before they perform it. They will write down, in

their "science journal", their hypothesis, how they plan to test it, and their predictions about the outcomeof the test. Once they execute their plan, they will go back and reflect on what happened and write downtheir observations and reasons for deviating from their prediction (if any). This science journal will reflect

the groups' understanding of the underlying mechanism of the bee dance and their hypotheses and

predictions will reflect their increasing understanding of the bee dance phenomena. This is very similar tothe previous phase but an important difference being the enactment. Since the students can manipulate thetangible representation of the dance shape, they will refine and reinforce their understanding of the

phenomena from the previous phases. "Successful" manipulation of the shape will show the level of

understanding of the students. We define success as being able to direct the bee to the food source by

manipulating the shape appropriately.

Implementation

In order to test the feasibility of our activity, we pilot tested Phase 1 and 2. First of all, we designed the

maps to scaffold the tasks to be accomplished in Phase 1 (please refer to A.1 for more details) and we

created the observation sheet for Phase 2 (please refer to A.2 for more details). We also developed aprototype of the bee dance simulation to be used for Phase 2, using the Processing programming language[23]: we created three different videos to highlight the main characteristics of the waggle dance.

Before showing each video we positioned both the flower and the sun. Because of time constraints, wedecided to maintain the position of the sun fixed.

We implemented a rudimentary version of the moving sun but we would be implementing the actual

design with a disco ball retrofitted with motors and projecting the image of the "sun" on the wall. Thedisco ball would rotate slowly in order to simulate the path of the sun across the walls.We projected the bee dance on the wall and instructed subjects to annotate the observation sheet (see A.2

for more details). We plan to develop the virtual hive and show the bee dance there using the LCD screens

for the actual study.


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For Phase 3, a full system for this phase would consist of the following:

1. Electroluminescent T-shirts : these will be bought from a third party vendor;2. IR tracking system: depending on the budget available for the implementation, low-tech or hi-tech

tracking system (refer to the Technologies sub-section for Phase 3);

3. Measuring instruments: depending on the budget available for the implementation, low-tech or hi-tech measuring instruments (refer to the Technologies sub-section for Phase 3;

4. Virtual hive consisting of 3 LCD screens: we will use the virtual hive developed for the previousphase;

5. Processing animation: this animation is partially developed and in terms of future work, it needsto be completed, integrated with the hardware and fully tested.

For Phase 4, a full system for this phase would consist of:

1. Tangible devices: tangibles made of flexible wire to emulate the shape of the waggle dance;2. Audio feedback (buzzing sound): this needs to developed and will be done once the virtual hive is

ready.

Data collection and analysis

The maps and observation sheets from Phase 2, and the experiment journals and discussion board notesfrom Phases 2 and 3 will constitute our main feedback channel from the learners. We will analyze these

sources to track children's understanding of the waggle dance. Experiment designs that hone in on relevant

features of the phenomenon will evince the effectiveness of the learning that takes place. We will analyzethese artifacts during the sessions to identify the nature of scaffolding that is required during each of thephases.

In addition, all phases will be videotaped and reviewed at the end of the activity with a focus on thestudents' interactions and discussions to identify the change in the nature and content of group discussionsas they progress through the activity. We will also have one to one semi-structured interviews with the

students after the activity is over to find out what they have learned about the bee dance.

Management structure

While during the development phase each one of us has been assigned to a different specific role, we have

decided to keep the designation of tasks and responsibilities more flexible.

These are the roles that we have identified:

Work manager: schedules meeting, keeps track of timeline, setups deadlines, assigns roles; Website responsible: updates the public website as well as internal web resources (such as Google

Group); Public relations: contacts schools and institutions, looks for opportunities, presents work; Research expert: keeps the group updated on most recent research development; Documents responsible: main writer of public documents, might also provide content for the

public website;


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Technology coordinator: controls every aspect related to technology, decides which technologiesshould be used taking into account costs, looks for sellers;

Software engineer: develops the software part of the project; Hardware: develops custom hardware for the project; Facilitaror / instructor: assists the installation of the activity, tests it before the activity, and

provides support "in medias res";

Data analyst: collects data regarding (mainly notes and video), analyzes such data, presentsfindings to the group;

Learning scientist: monitors the effectiveness of the activity.

Project timetable, milestones, and advancements

We have setup a website publicly accessible to keep track of the progress of the project. The link is:http://code.google.com/p/united-nations/wiki/ProjectStatus

In order to better organize the work we have set some internal deadlines and we have also planned workfor future months. This is shown in the following two timelines: the first one refers to the development

phase and the second one to the implementation phase.

Development timeline


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Implementation timeline


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References

[1] Illinois Learning Standards "Learning standards for Science".

[2] Illinois Learning Standards "Learning standards for Mathematics".

[3] American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Project 2061. Benchmarks for

science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Also available online:

[4] Karl Von Frisch. The dance language and orientation of bees. Belknap Press of Harvard University

Press, 1967.

[5] Karl Von Frisch. Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language. Cornell University Press; 2nd

edition, 1971.

[6] Karl Von Frisch. Il linguaggio delle api. Boringhieri, 1976.

[7] Jay S. Silver, Nature as Interface - MacGyvering and Martha-Stewarting Interactivity with Trees,

Pencils, Grandpa, Even the Kitchen Sink. MIT Media Lab, MA, USA, 2006.

[8] Buechley, L., and M. Eisenberg. Fabric PCBs, electronic sequins, and socket buttons: Techniques for

e-textile craft.Personal and Ubiquitous Computing: 118.

[9] Lee, J.C. Hacking the Nintendo Wii Remote.Pervasive Computing, IEEE7, no. 3 (2008): 39-45.

[10] Antle, Alissa N., Milena Droumeva, and Daniel Ha. Hands on what?: comparing children's mouse-

based and tangible-based interaction. InProceedings of the 8th International Conference on InteractionDesign and Children, 80-88. Como, Italy: ACM, 2009.

[11] Moher, Tom, David Haas, Janet Kim, and Andrew Johnson. Designing digital phenomenaria: thebee dance. InACM SIGGRAPH 2003 Educators Program, 1-1. San Diego, California: ACM, 2003.

[12] Johnson, A., T. Moher, Y.J. Cho, Y.J. Lin, D. Haas, and J. Kim. Augmenting elementary school

education with VR. Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE22, no. 2 (2002): 6-9.

[13] Moher, Tom. Embedded phenomena: supporting science learning with classroom-sized distributedsimulations. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, 691-

700. Montral, Qubec, Canada: ACM, 2006.

[14] John P. Smith, III, Andrea A. diSessa and Jeremy Roschelle. (1993-1994). MisconceptionsReconceived: A Constructivist Analysis of Knowledge in Transition. The Journal of the LearningSciences, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1993 - 1994), pp. 115-163.

[15] Bar-Cohen, Y., & Breazeal, C. (2003). Biologically inspired intelligent robots: Society of Photo

Optical.

[16] Babaoglu, O., Canright, G., Deutsch, A., Caro, G., Ducatelle, F., Gambardella, L., Ganguly, N.,


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Jelasity, M., Montemanni, R., & Montresor, A. (2006). Design patterns from biology for distributed

computing. ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems (TAAS), 1(1), 66.

[17] Vattam, S., Helms, M., & Goel, A. (2007). Biologically inspired innovation in engineering design: acognitive study: Technical Report GIT-GVU-07-07, Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center,Georgia Institute of Technology.

[18] Helms, M., Vattam, S., & Goel, A. (2009). Biologically inspired design: process and products.

Design Studies, 30(5), 606-622.

[19] Magnusson, S. J., & Palincsar, A. S. (1995). The Learning Environment as a Site of Science

Education Reform. Theory into Practice, 34(1), 43-50

[20] American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1989). Science for all Americans.Washington, DC: Author

[21] Riley, J. R., U. Greggers, A. D. Smith, D. R. Reynolds, and R. Menzel. The flight paths of

honeybees recruited by the waggle dance.Nature 435, no. 7039 (May 12, 2005): 205-207.

[22] Kolodner, J., Starr, M., Edelson, D., Hug, B., Kanter, D., Krajcik, J., Lancaster, J., Laster, T.,

Leimberer, J., & Reiser, B. (2008). Implementing what we know about learning in a middle-school

curriculum for widespread dissemination: the project-based inquiry science (PBIS) story. In Proceedings

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[23] Processing web-site. http://www.processing.org


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Appendix A - Activity papers

A.1 Phase 1

A.1.1 Possible boxes to indicate what Bob is able to do

A.1.2 Map with no helping lines


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A.1.3 Map with grid


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A.1.4 - Map with polar grid


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A.2 Phase 2

A.2.1 Observation sheet


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A.2.2 Observation sheet for later iterations (with scaffolding)


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A.3 Phase 3

A.3.1 Journal(page 1 and 2)


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A.4 Phase 2 and Phase 3

A.4.1 Discussion Board

Collaborative, computer-supported exploration of animal communication: the bees’ tail-wagging...

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