INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION IN TECHNOLOGY

(SSI 3013)

GROUP B

SEMESTER 1 (SESI 2012/2013)

ASSIGMENT : STELLA SOFTWARE

LECTURER : EN.AZMI BIN IBRAHIM

NAME MATRIC NUMBERNORFARRAHDILAH BINTI AMIR D20101037438

Modelling and simulations are two closely related computer applications which play

the important role in helping the people to understand and be trained for something easily.

Model can be defines as the representation of an object, a system or an idea in some form

other than that of the entity itself according to the Shannon. Both this computer modelling

and simulation are the computer applications which represent a real world or the imaginary

system. The differences between these two is that a model can be considered as a static while

a simulation can be considered as dynamic as the variables of this simulations always

changes. Although the model often tries to represent the actual system, in other hand, a

simulation may try to observe the results by doing some impossible changes. Other than that,

we can see the simulation is changing one or more variables of a model and observing the

resulted changes.

First, we look on to the modelling. Modelling is the process of producing a model and

this model is a representation of the construction and working of some system of interest.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word model is defined as the three dimensional

representation of a person or thing typically on a small scale. Often the model is same as the

system that they represent but it is simpler. It is created from the mass of data, equations and

computations that mimic the actions of the things they represents. Models may also include a

graphical display that will translate all this number crunching into an animation that you can

see on a computer screen or by means of some other visual device.  The model should be a

close approximation to the real system and also combine most of its salient features because

this model is used to enable the analyst to predict any changes effects that occur to the

system. Furthermore, the model cannot be so complex which may leads to the difficulties to

understand and do experimenting on it.

Next is the simulation. Simulation is a technique of studying and analyzing the

behaviour of the real world or an imaginary system by mimic it on the computer application.

It is use in education to help enhance the understanding of the learners and help to apply the

skills and knowledge that they learned in the classroom. It is believe that regularly practicing

skills with supervision in a simulated environment will promotes the successful transfer of

these skills to the real world. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the meaning of

simulation actually is a technique of imitating the behavior of some situation or system by

means of an analogous model, situation or apparatus either to gain information more

conveniently or to train personnel. In educational perspective, computer-based simulation can

be defined as a program that embodies some aspect of the world which allows the user to

make an input to the model and display the results. And Wenglinsky (1999) said, it is found

that simulation that is used in the classroom was associated with academic achievement in

math and also many types of social improvements.

We can used simulation in many contexts such as simulation of technology for

performance optimization, safety engineering, testing, training, education, and also a video

games. For example, the training simulators would include the flight simulators for training

aircraft pilots and this will provide them with a lifelike experience. Other than that,

simulation is also used in a scientific modeling of natural systems or human systems to gain

insight into their functioning. In addition, we can use this simulation to show the eventual

real effects of alternative conditions and courses of action. When the real system cannot be

engaged because it may not be accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage,

or it is being designed but not yet built, or it may simply not exist, simulation is one of the

solutions to overcome this problem. Apart from that, the simulation is extensively used for

educational purposes as it is frequently used by way of adaptive hypermedia. This indicate

that the simulation make a different if we used it for the educational purpose.

One of the examples of the simulation application is Stella software. Stella is the

software that offers the practical way to dynamically visualize and communicate how

complex systems and ideas really work. Most of the teachers, students and researchers used

Stella to explore and answer endless questions. Examples of the questions are how does

climate changes influence an ecosystem over time and what will happen when the ozone

layer is gone. This Stella application will proceeds in three steps which are constructing a

qualitative model, parameterzing it and lastly is exploring the models dynamics. There also

involve an idea which to interface with students investigative experiences. Stella provides

opportunities to explore and watching what happen which inspiring the exciting moments of

leaning. This Stella software will supports diverse learning styles with a wide range of

storytelling features. It will help the learners to discover the relationship between variables in

equation because it has a diagrams, charts and animation. We can use Stella for the purpose

of to stimulate a system over a time and to jump the gap between theory and the real world. It

is also enables the students to creatively change the system provided.

Simulations in education are quite similar to training simulations. They will focus on

specific tasks. First, computer simulation offers the opportunity for students to experiment

with phenomena or events which normally cannot be experimented with in the traditional

way. According to Bork (1981), “Simulations provide students with experience that may be

difficult or impossible to obtain in everyday life”. It not possible for teacher to

demonstrate something that is dangerous. The only thing the teacher can do is to explain and

discuss the content of the learning. For example, when a teacher tries to explain a difficult

interrelationship such as a hybridization experiment with fruit flies in the traditional way it is

likely that part of the class will fail to understand. Execution of the real experiment is

impossible because this would take a number of weeks and can therefore not be integrated as

such within a lesson.

When, after the necessary theoretical discussion of the material, a simulation

experiment follows there will be a greater chance that more students will understand a

complete relationship, such as a hybridization experiment. We can see that the use of

simulation like Stella software will increase the student motivation to learn something new.

When the teachers introduce the topics using the simulation, it will motivate the students as it

helps the students to see the things from different perspective or in another word allow them

to able feel connected to the topic. While working with a computer simulation program the

student is experimenting, so he or she is playing an active role rather than a passive role. This

active engagement contrasts with the situation students often experience during 'face-to-face'

teaching when they are listening passively.

Foster (1984) says that “Simulations can be entertaining because of dramatic and

game-like components”. Motivation will help the students to stay focused and

psychologically strong to faced the obstacles and difficulties in the studies. As we know, not

everything in the study can be learn directly. Sometimes it may require certain way to give

better understanding such as the introduction of the Stella software. With this technology,

students will feel motivated to continue the study as they knew that they can learn something

new not only from the teachers itself but they can learn interestingly with the aid of the

simulation. This will lead the students to achieve their goal in this life. Besides this

motivation is not only for themselves but it also can motivate the others. For example, when

student are happy and interesting to learn something new, they would also can attract their

peers to join them. As we know, friends are the persons that give most of the influence

especially to the students. So, using the Stella software can also trigger the others to learn.

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Other than that, when using the Stella, we can actually change our parameter several

times. For example, we use the simple predator-prey dynamics experiments. Living things

within an ecosystem are interdependent. A change in the size of one population that occurs

will affect all the organisms in that population. This is shown in the relationship between

predators and prey populations. There is a continuous struggle happens between the predators

and the prey. This predator species need to adapt with the environment for efficient hunting.

On the other side, prey species must be well adapted to run and escape from the predators to

survive in that species. We can see that, when the prey population is increase in an

ecosystem, the predator will increase as well as respond to the increase in the food supply.

The increasing number of the predators will affect the food supply where sometimes it cannot

longer support the predator population. So to get better understand about the relationship

between the predator-prey in this experiment, students can change the parameters many times

as to get clear and fully explanation about it.

In this experiment of the predator-prey dynamics, we can see that the shape of the

graph is change when we modified the parameters. We start the experiment with the value of

0 for the size of 1 time lynx harvest. When we run the simulation, the graph show that the

two species of predators and prey have straight line. This indicates that the numbers of the

lynx harvest is the same as the number of the hares which result in straight line graph

produced. Then, we change the parameter to the value of 100 for the size of 1 time lynx

harvest. As the number of the predators increase, we can see the number of the hare will

decrease. It is because the hare is the prey for the lynx. When the source of the food is

increase, the population will increase as well. So we get to see that the line graph for the lynx

and hare is directly proportional to each other. The graph clearly shows that the increase

number of lynx would decrease the number of hare. It is same for the next two graphs when

we change the parameter of the size of 1 time lynx harvest to 200 and 300. The graph will

show the directly proportional relationship where the number of predator decrease will

increase the number of prey.

Based on this graph, we say that this Stella software really help in motivate the

students to learning. The student can insert those parameter values that he or she thinks will

produce a result which is of interest to him. The student can devote his attention to parts that

interest him. The student can skip other parts or aspects as well. This way he or she will

learns how to experiment systematically. It is because, when we change the parameters

several times, the students will have the chance to look and understanding about the

experiment clearly. There would also be variations of the result as we can change the

parameters many times. With this, the students will feel motivated and get to know what will

happens if they change something to their experiment. They would feel excited to learn as

their learning process become more interesting. The students would feel free to explore the

experiments according to what they want. It is just using this Stella software and they can run

as many as they want because we do not need to carry out the real experiment and faced the

risk.

Other than that, the focuses in education nowadays not only for the students to pass

the courses but it also include to teach and assess broader competencies among the students.

A competency is defined as knowledge, attributes, skills, behaviour and attitudes that enable

an individual to perform a specific set of tasks or objectives to a given standard. Little efforts

have focused in integrating knowledge and skills and developing competencies among the

students. So, it is to make use the simulation because it will help in effectiveness

competency-based education. Simulations not only help to develop the competency but at the

same time it can be used in the arts as well as sciences which we can experiment it like the

real situation. The use of simulation in education will continue to expand because they are

effective pedagogical tools which give benefit to the students. From this simulation, both the

educators and the learners will get the benefit and this will help them to increase their

performances on work.

Using this Stella software, they can predict what will happen to their experiment if

they modified something. For example, in the experiment of simple predator-prey dynamics,

they will repeat the experiment with different value of the number of predators. With this,

students will be able to predict what will happen next because they are so used with the

changing of the value of the size of 1 time lynx harvest which is the predator in this

experiment. Learning process will be more meaningful to the students as they are learning to

do on their own. It is important too if students can have a discussion about the use and results

of simulations among them to allow the students to come out with the appropriate

conclusions about what they learn. In addition, having the students to make a prediction on

the experiment they run can lead them to discuss their reasoning as they argue for different

predicted results. Exploring this type of simulations will exposes learners to ideas that may

be different from their own, and gives them an opportunity to experiment with those ideas.

Most of the learners will able to predict what happen next to the experiment which

indicate they gain something from their learning using the simulation. If they understand

what exactly the experiment all about, they will easily predict result of their experiment. With

this, we know that learning through the Stella software does give a different in the way the

students learn. They not only learn based on what the teachers said but they learn with their

own efforts to make the learning process interesting and useful for them. This can be one of

the ways to see whether the students understand what they actually learn. If the students get

what he or she learn, then they will easily predict the result or the graph of the experiment

they conducted. This prediction point is can be one of the advantages that students gain when

using the Stella software.

Main advantages of simulation include it can avoid the dangers and loss of life. This

is because the conditions can be varied and unpredictable in the real situations. It is important

to use the simulation as the critical situations can be investigated without any risk. Study the

effects of certain informational, organizational, and environmental and policy changes on the

operation of a system by altering the system's model and this can be done without disrupting

the real system and significantly reduces the risk of experimenting with the real system.

Other than that, we can study the subject closely because when using the simulation it can be

slow down according what we want. Another advantage is we can obtain a better

understanding of the system by developing a mathematical model of a system of interest, and

observing the system's operation in detail over long periods of time.

 A simulator can be used as an effective means for teaching or demonstrating concepts

to students. Such simulators will show the behavior and relationship of all the simulated

system's components, thereby providing the user with a meaningful understanding of the

system's nature. For example is a circuit simulator. By showing the path of the circuit,

students can actually see what is happening within the circuit and therefore give students

much more understanding about the topic. It also can make students transferring knowledge

to a new situation. A simulation is usually constructed to include a new problem and new set

of the parameters. All this will need the students to come out with what they have learn in the

early learning.

Then, the used of simulation in teaching and leaning also can give benefits to the

relationship between the students and the teachers. Social process and social interaction make

the students feel comfortable to work with their teachers. To be able to feel best using the

simulation, both teachers and students need to cooperate and discuss together in order to get

the best results. This active learning really help in the way that students get involved in the

learning process as well as their ability to select the best parameter to be used, interpret the

outcomes and be able to give new question to ask about the task that been given. Both of

them would continue to produce more useful tools for example the simulation that can be

used in the future for our next coming generation.

Lastly, most of the time the simulation testing is cheaper and faster than performing

the multiple tests of the design each time. We do not need to find the actual place to run the

experiment as we done it using the software like Stella software. We can run the experiment

as many we want until the best result is obtain. It also can save the time for the learners to

study. For example, if they do not have the time to do the experiments, they may simply

observe the simulation that been created by the others. It is include the educational video clip.

By working with simulations in different ways and different topic, the learners will acquired

the simulation literacy necessary for the better understanding of the purpose and limitations

of the simulations as a tool of learning. They also can be exposed to the subject matter by

modifying the parts of the existing simulation or even built a new simulation that can be used

in the future. This will give benefits to the learners as they refers to the previous simulation

for referens.

The disadvantages of used the simulation is the error may occur during the

experiments. Any incorrect key stroke has the potential to alter the results of the simulation

and will give you the wrong results. It sometimes happens that it is difficult to interpret the

simulation results as the erroneous assumptions. Other than that, it is not the actual machine

that it replicates because the simulation model is based on the experiments. This can

contribute to the situation when the people do not take seriously on this test as they are not

able to actually feel, see and hear the project as it would be in the reality. All this may affects

the result of the experiments that been done by the simulation. Sometimes, it could be

difficult for us to read the results of simulation model test because the simulation model

could be too complex or too simple which this may lead to the less successful for

development purpose. In addition, the software itself can be expensive although there are free

software package. This is because; the free trial only can be used for a limited time. In

addition, to get the correct result of your simulation, you must first run a base line to prove

that it works.

In conclusion, Stella software is suitable in teaching and learning. This is because it

will provide the students with a great idea about what they learn as the simulation will help

them to a better understanding about the topic. Other than that, when using the Stella

software, students will have the chance to discuss their finding with their friend because

sometimes the result appear to be something that we can argue. As we all know, most of the

students will learn by actively gaining knowledge from their experience, interpretation and

also their interaction with friends and also teachers. So using simulation as one of the method

of learning is best way. Stella software is seems to be easier for the students to use it and this

simulation is interesting which can attract the students to learn.

The challenge is to ensure that simulation is used effectively to enhance how and what

children learn besides the interactive and interesting learning . Careful planning is required

for constructing a project to be purposeful and uses technology specially computer

simulations such as Stella in a constructive, real-world manner. Simulations do not work on

their own, there needs to be some structuring of the students' interactions with the simulation

to increase effectiveness, as it was initiated through experimental model causing to raise the

quality and quantity of interactions with the Stella models. Hence, the important finding of

this simulation models such as Stella are used to expand students' experience of experimental

science and should not be used as a substitution for basic understandings and intuitions which

one can promote students to higher level Stella model only when they learned the basic role

of Stella. In other words the Stella software is suitable for learning process if we follow all

the basic step learn through this simulation programme that we called it as Stella software.