Nigel Gilbert posted this summary of exercises for ABM students on the NetLogo list. Some good ideas.
-Steve > -----Original Message----- > From: Nigel Gilbert [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 3:11 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [netlogo-users] Exercises for beginners: summary > > On 7 April, I asked for suggestions for programming exercises > for those new to NetLogo or to programming. Many members of > the list kindly volunteered ideas and advice. I summarise > briefly below some of these (the original post is appended). > > Several people suggested that the best advice is to look at > and modify existing programs, such as those in the Model > Library. I agree that this is good advice, but I don't think > it is sufficient: at some stage, beginners need to be > persuaded to strike out on their own if they are become modellers. > > Ken Kahn suggested examples from Brian Harvey's Computer > Science Logo Style > http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/v2-toc2.html > <http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/v2-toc2.html> > > James Steiner suggested a 'chase and trace' program: > Three (or more) things (the pursuers), starting (in the > corners) pursue another thing (the pursued), starting (in the > center). For each step the pursued takes (along a predefined > path, a random path, away from closest chaser, away from all > the pursuers), the pursuers take a step towards the pursued. > As the things move, they drag a pen that shows the path they > have taken. > > He also proposed implementing "Conway's Life". > > Paul Coates suggested a novel way of implementing bubblesort: > When introducing bubblesort my students and I get lots of fun > doing it with people. Students line up and each one asks the > person in front what their name is. if you are Adamatzy and > the guy in front is Zogolovich then you swap and so on. You > could set this up with turtles using who numbers [or give the > turtles names - NG]. Line the turtles up, ask them who the > guy in front is etc. > > Jim Lyons suggested: Make a binary counter by using a turtle > for each bit. > Its label is its state, 1 or 0. (Hint: Arrange the turtles > from right to left so that each turtle's who number is also > its power of two in the > counter.) Write a command that increments the counter by one. > > Steve Railsback mentioned the sequence of 16 template models > he and colleagues devised that could be used as beginners' exercises: > http://www.swarm.org/wiki/Software_templates > <http://www.swarm.org/wiki/Software_templates> > > Thank you all for your suggestions and interest. Here are > some more suggestions that I have listed on a student handout: > > Cars at a road intersection > What happens as the number of cars trying to cross an > intersection increases? Develop a model in which cars/car > drivers are agents and drivers attempt to cross the > intersection safely, without crashing into the cars coming > from the other roads that meet at the intersection. > > Patient choice > An earlier activity introduced a system dynamics model of > hospital choice (this modelled two hospitals, each with a > maximum capacity, a waiting list, and a reputation. Patients > selected which hospital to attend depending on its reputation > and the length of its waiting list. > Over-subscribed hospitals gradually lost their reputation as > their quality of care declined). Build the equivalent > agent-based model and see whether this is to be preferred > over the system dynamics version. > > Party voting > Assume that political parties¹ manifestos can be arranged > along a single line, from left to right, that voters¹ > preferences are randomly distributed from left to right, and > that voters vote for the party whose manifesto position is > closest to their own preference. Build a model to show that a > centrist party will win the election. Now complicate the > model with more than one dimension, parties that move their > position to maximise their chances of election, voters that > remember election pledges and so on (there is a large > literature in political science investigating models of this kind). > > Seating positions > In a typical lecture room, there are 5 rows of 6 seats. > Students enter the room before a lecture starts and select a > seat to occupy. > Through observation, introspection or in some other way, > devise a set of rules that students might be using to choose > where to sit and create a simulation in which the agents use > these rules to select a place in a virtual room. Compare the > pattern of occupied seats with a real lecture room. > > Markets > A market consists of some number of sellers and some buyers. > Sellers want to maximise the money they receive, and will not > sell if offered less than their Œreservation price¹. However, > they want to sell all their goods if possible. Buyers want to > buy goods cheaply, and will not buy if the price is above > their reservation price. Model a market in which there are no > fixed prices, and the effective price depends on whether a > buyer can be found for that price. Show that the price of a > single type of good tends to converge to the Œmarket price¹, > and that this depends on the demand (but not on the number of > buyers or sellers, if the numbers are large). Once you have > designed a market model such as this, there are lots of > interesting variations. For example, there may be information > costs involved in finding which of several sellers is the > cheapest. In such markets, not all sellers need to offer the > same price. > > > There are also two suggestions in my original post, below. > > Nigel > > On 7/4/07 23:06, "Nigel Gilbert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:n.gilbert%40surrey.ac.uk> > wrote: > > > I'm looking for ideas for programs that beginners to NetLogo (and to > > programming) could use as exercises to help them learn how to build > > NetLogo models. Beginners can learn a lot from looking at other > > people's programs, but to really gain confidence, they need to > > practice writing their own. Most of the models in the > Models Library > > and on the Community page are good for learning about physics or > > biology or whatever, but are too complicated for a real > beginner to re-implement for themselves. > > > > Good exercises for beginners would be ones for which: > > - it is easy to describe what the problem is or the model > is supposed > > to do; > > - specialist knowledge of a discipline is not needed to > understand the > > problem > > - a model can be programmed in less than one page (say, 40 lines of > > code as a maximum) > > - has some satisfyingly visual output > > > > Here's two suggestions. Do you have others to add? If so, > please post > > them (on or off list) and I'll summarise everything I get. > > > > 1. make a turtle trace out your initials 2. model the path > of a rope > > held at one end and moved with a sin wave at the other end > > > > Nigel > > > > > > __________________________________________________________ > > Professor Nigel Gilbert, Editor, Journal of Artificial > Societies and > > Social Simulation, <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/ > > <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/> > Centre for Research in Social > > Simulation (CRESS) Department of Sociology, University of > Surrey, Guildford, UK. > > Tel:+44 1483 689173 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > <mailto:N.Gilbert%40surrey.ac.uk> <http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/ > > <http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! 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