Stella

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION IN TECHNOLOGY
(SSI 3013)
GROUP B
SEMESTER 1 (SESI 2012/2013)

ASSIGMENT : STELLA SOFTWARE
LECTURER : EN.AZMI BIN IBRAHIM

NAME MATRIC NUMBER
NORFARRAHDILAH 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.

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.

Stella

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