Lab 6 - Creating an Original Model Using the Seven-Step Modeling Process
Having completed the first five learning labs, you should be getting much more comfortable using NetLogo. Lab 6 is designed to provide one last opportunity to both improve your confidence and build your skills. This Lab uses our Seven-Step Modeling Process to walk through the process of creating an original model of how a fire spreads (with many changes from the Fire Model you modified in Lab 4). The lab is certainly not for total beginners, as it requires YOU to work through most of the details of putting the model together - unlike some of the earlier Labs.
To start, read through the Study Guide on the Modeling Process.
Good. Now we can start thinking about the model we’ll create together in this Lab.
For this model, we decided to explore the question of how does a fire spread through a forest. The NetLogo Model Library has had two different models of how a fire spreads, but neither model has been particularly satisfying in realistically capturing all of the reality of a forest-fire.
We began the process of brainstorming and theorizing about how a fire spreads by discussing several possibilities for a model and thinking about what we knew about how a fire actually spreads. The process we completed was nicely captured in a “mind map,” by the Mind Manager software - a visual tool for brainstorming and planning. We find that Mind Manager works incredibly well for thinking through the process of creating a Netlogo model.
The full-size graphic of our mind-map can be viewed here.
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