NetLogo Models Library:
HubNet Activities/Unverified

Note: This model is unverified. It has not yet been tested and polished as thoroughly as our other models.

For information about HubNet, click here.

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Walking

(The run link is disabled because HubNet Activities cannot be run in the web applet version of NetLogo) Note: If you download the NetLogo application, all of the HubNet Activities are included.

This activity is available only for computer HubNet, not calculator HubNet.

WHAT IS IT?

Each student defines the motion of a walking character by setting its velocity on their client over time intervals. The students have 9 different intervals for which they can set the velocity. They can then send these velocities to their characters, where they see the character walking its route over the 9 intervals. This is designed to help students understand the accumulation of distance as a function of time. This can serve as a jumping off point for advanced concepts ranging from derivatives and integrals to wave mechanics.

For further documentation, see the Participatory Simulations Guide found at http://ccl.northwestern.edu/ps/

HOW IT WORKS

Each student has control of nine sliders, one for each interval over a period of time, the sliders determine the velocity of the character, walker, assigned to the student. Once instructions have been given and students have made selected their velocities for each time interval you can run the simulation. The walkers will move across the view at the indicated rates possibly leaving behind a trail to make it easier to see the change in position over time.

There are two possible clients for this activity, one with a view and one without. Walking includes the view, Walking Alternate does not.

HOW TO USE IT

To start the activity press the SETUP button and then press LOGIN. Have the students login and identify their location in the view. Students can then change the velocities of their character by moving the interval sliders on the client. To run the entire set of nine intervals press the GO button, to move forward only one interval at a time press the STEP button. You may leave the LOGIN button pressed at all times if you wish.

To reset the clock and reset the walkers to their initial positions, that is a position that was randomly selected at login, press the SETUP button. If you just want to reset the clocks and allow the walkers to continue from their current positions press the RESET-CLOCK button. To reset walkers to a new random position press the SET-RANDOM-POSITIONS button. To set the position of all walkers to the same place select the location by setting the WALKER-POSITION slider and press the SET-UNIFORM-POSITIONS button.

By default the velocities and positions for all walkers are plotted in the POSITION V INTERVAL and VELOCITY V INTERVAL plots. If you want to plot only one walker press the PICK-WALKER-TO-PLOT button and select a walker from the list, or select "everybody" to plot all walkers again.

There are a few settings that will help you and the participants to visualize the simulation. SIMULATION-SPEED adjusts how quickly to move through the intervals during GO. When SHOW-USER-ID? is true, all the turtles show their user-id as its label otherwise no label is shown. When FOOTPRINTS? is true the walkers leave a trail of footprints behind them, the footprints fade over time so you can track how long ago you were at each position. When TRAILS? is true the walkers change the pcolor along their path as they move indicating whether they are moving in a positive or negative direction. When ANIMATION? is true the walkers are animated like a flipbook as they move across the world.

THINGS TO NOTICE

Notice if a walker moves more than 1 position during an interval, it equally divides the amount of time spent traveling through each position.

THINGS TO TRY

Have your walker sit at x = 3 during the fourth time segment. What is the same and different between the solutions? Encourage students to come up with unique solutions.

Have students coordinate to make a traveling or a standing wave.

Have each student set their walker to have a velocity of +2 during the fourth time interval.

Have each student set their velocities so that the walker starts and ends in the same position.

EXTENDING THE MODEL

A real person may not move at a constant speed. He or she may build speed gradually until they have reached a constant speed. Then before reaching their destination, they will slow down. Try to make this happen as a part of the model.

NETLOGO FEATURES

This activity uses incremental turtle shapes in order to simulate an animation.

RELATED MODELS

Function

HOW TO CITE

If you mention this model in an academic publication, we ask that you include these citations for the model itself and for the NetLogo software:
- Wilensky, U. and Stroup, W. (2006). NetLogo HubNet Walking model. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/HubNetWalking. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
- Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

In other publications, please use:
- Copyright 2006 Uri Wilensky and Walter Stroup. All rights reserved. See http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/HubNetWalking for terms of use.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Copyright 2006 Uri Wilensky and Walter Stroup. All rights reserved.

Permission to use, modify or redistribute this model is hereby granted, provided that both of the following requirements are followed:
a) this copyright notice is included.
b) this model will not be redistributed for profit without permission from the copyright holders. Contact the copyright holders for appropriate licenses for redistribution for profit.

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