SSI3013

INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
IN SCIENCES

Assignment: Simulation (STELLA SOFTWARE)

By,
NOOR FATIHAH BINTI MOHD GHANI (D20151070982)
NUR AZIERA BINTI ZULKIFLI (D20151070994)

NUR DINI SIDDIQAH BINTI MOHD ZURI (D20151070983)

Lectures Name: AZMI BIN IBRAHIM

Slot: Monday (2.00 4.00PM)
CONTENT

BI CONTENT PAGE
L
1 Intoduction 3
2 What is Simulation 34
3 Advantages of Simulation 45
4 Disadvantages of Simulation 5
5 Discussion 6 11
6 How student can learn from Stella 11 12

7 Conclusion 12 13
8 References 13
 INTRODUCTION

What is Simulation?

A model is the simplified version of representation of the actual system aimed to promote
understanding of real system.

System is an entity which maintains its existence through interactions of its parts in time and
space.

Simulation is the manipulation of model to a computerised version which is run over time to
study the implications of defined interactions.

Computer simulation is the discipline of creating a model of an actual or theoretical physical

system by carrying out the model on a digital computer and analysing the output been carried
out.

Simulation is a mode or representations. Simulation is widely used in many sector

such as in education, trainings and video games. The example of simulation is stella.
STELLA is a short form of Systems Thinking, Experimental Learning Laboratory with
Animation. STELLA is a visual programming language for system dynamics modelling.
Stella is introduced by Barry Richmond in 1985. This program allows users to run models
created as graphical representations of a system using four fundamental building blocks.
STELLA has been used in academic as a teaching tool and has been utilized in a variety of
research and business applications.

Simulation is widely used in educational purposes. In such situations students will

spend time learning valuable lessons in a safe virtual environment. A food chain is the
sequence of who eats whom in a biological community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition. A
food chain starts with the primary energy source, usually the sun. The next link in the chain is
an organism that make its own food from the primary energy source. An example is
photosynthetic plants that make their own food from sunlight (using a process called
photosynthesis). These are called autotrophs or primary producers. Next come organisms that
eat the autotrophs; these organisms are called herbivores or primary consumers. An example
is a rabbit that eats grass.
 The next link in the chain is animals that eat herbivores - these are called secondary
consumer. An example is a snake that eat rabbits. In turn, these animals are eaten by larger
predators. An example is an owl that eats snakes.

The arrows in a food chain show the flow of energy, from the sun to a top predator. As the
energy flows from organism to organism, energy is lost at each step. A network of many food
chains is called a food web. In this experiment, we want to investigate the food chain between
palm oil, mouse and owl. The palm oil plant act as a primary producers while mouse acts as a
primary consumer. The owl which eat the mouse act as secondary consumer. We using the
STELLA to conduct this experiment.

Advantages of Simulation
Stella gives many advantages in teaching and learning process. One of the advantages is the
teaching and learning process will become more interesting and exciting as the learners can
explore everything in various types of experiments. They also can enjoy the learning process
and not just imagine on what have been taught by the teachers.

Next, Simulation software helps students learn more interest because it contains diagrams,
graphs, interesting application and Colourful figure. It can attract students attention and
increase the motivation to study the subject. By using the software, students will think every
subjects is easy and possible to do. It will also increase the level of curiosity among students
and will improve confidence between them and to put more effort on it.

Stella can save the cost. This is because the educators do not need to provide the apparatus
and materials needed for the experiment. Using simulation software, students can quickly try
out their ideas at the fraction of the cost of trying them in the real organization.

Besides, it helps student to be more active other than passive in the classroom in the
classroom as they are attracted to the stimulation and will involve directly with the activity
that will be held. The simulators can be used as an effective means for teaching concepts to
students. Simulations help students understand probability and sampling theory. Classes in
the physical sciences reinforce and build upon the concepts and theories taught in lecture with
opportunities to experiment in a laboratory setting, courses in the social sciences often do not
include similar, hands-on learning opportunities. Instructional simulations have proven their
worth many times over in the statistics based fields. The ability to match simulation results
with an analytically derived conclusion is especially valuable in beginning classes, where
students often struggle with sampling theory. This is particularly true of simulators that make
intelligent use of computer graphics and animation. Such simulators dynamically show the
behaviour and relationship of all the simulated system's components, thereby providing the
user with a meaningful understanding of the system's nature.

Disadvantages of Simulation
There are several disadvantages of the simulation. First of all, it will give high cost to buy the
software. . In certain cases simulation models can be very expensive. It very expensive to
build simulation model because it requires computer to run the experiment This is because
the cost of the software is about RM3000 which is unaffordable for the school department to
buy it. Most large scale simulation languages and their environment represent a major
investment. If animation is going to be used, it will cost must include a graphic monitor.

Besides, there are many teachers in the school who still love to use the traditional way
as they fell easy and comfortable. To use simulations in class could be a burden to them as
they need long time to explore the simulation. When the teachers do not really know how to
use a simulation, they tend to spend more time trying to explore the simulation. This could
later lead to an environment of unsure teacher and confused students. So, the uses of
simulation is not famous among the teachers in school. Therefore, without expertise in using
simulation, it can be rather wasting time than saving time as it should be.

Then, the simulation requires additional training. As we know, not all of the teachers
know how to use technology and implement them in teaching their students. The good
trainers are needed to train the teachers on how to use this software.

Lastly, the simulation cause students to lack in manual science process skill which is
also important in the real life. If learning process depends too much on simulations, students
will not be able to handle manual process experiment successfully. In science experiment, the
way of measuring substance, how to handle the apparatus, how to use microscope, correct
way of taking reading; all of these are essential as a basic scientific skills. Lacking on these
skills can cause difficulty to students when they need to do real scientific experiment or
research later in their real life. Simulation can give result, analyze data, and mimics the real
world process; but simulation cannot develop students emotional and intuitive awareness of
the importance of what they have learned. Since simulation can simplify many of the
students work, students tend not to appreciate the knowledge and the value they gain.

Discussion

Graph A

Figure 1
In Figure 1 above shows that the result of graph when running the experiment of production
of palm oil between population of mice and owls. In the graph, we can see that the owls
decreased rapidly as the mice decrease. It is because the owls do not have enough source of
food (mice) as the population of mice decreased. At the beginning of experiment the
production of palm oil is low causing the decreasing population of mice as well as owls. This
is because the palm oil is the producer of this food chain and they are also become source of
food to mice. At some point, the population of mice increased as the population of owls
decrease (facing extinction). Later, the population of owls increase as the population of mice
increase At last, the production of palm oils increase when the population of mice decrease
because they have been eaten by the owls.

Graph B

Figure 2
In the second graph, we increase the parameter value of the owls and the mice causing the
changes on both population. The size population of mice low at first as the population of the
owls high. At certain point, the population of owls become decrease rapidly as the population
of the mice decrease because they do not have sufficient food to survive. As the production
of palm oils increasing, the production of mice also increase. At last, the production of palm
oils become decrease due to the population of mice increase.

Graph C

Figure 3
In the third graph, we increase the parameter population of owls but decrease the parameter

population of mice. At first, the population of the owls is decreasing rapidly due to the low
number population of the mice. The production of palm oils become increase as the
population of mice low. After some time, the population of mice increase because of higher
production of palm oils as their source of food. At last the production of palm oils decrease as
they being eaten by the mice.
 How student can learn from Stella
Stella helps students can predict the shape of graph in real life situation for determine the
experiment on biological control of the production of palm oils and the population of mice
and owl. They can understand the relation between population of palm oils, owls and mice
better as they can see the plotting of graph immediately when they just click run. Hence,
students will be able to relate the result to real experiment by analysing the graph from
simulation if it were to be conducted. This is an effective way to teach students about what
will happen to the food chain if any population of three organisms changes whether increase
or decrease in the field of biology and enhance their understanding towards this topic instead
of just studying theoretically.

Students can learn that the change in population will affect the outcome of experiment. They
will easily understand that the increased in population of owls will decrease the population of
the mice over the same period of time. This helps students to understand and analyse the
graph better because they can actually carry out the experiment by just running the system as
if they are doing the experiment in the real world. This learning is more effective than just
studying the books which is all fixed. With this, students can predict the outcome of
increasing population in real situation by studying the pattern of the graph from simulation.

Students can learn from this simulation by predicting the outcome of the graph by
changing the parameter. Students will be able to understand the meaning of food chain and
how it affects the ecosystem. Students will be also able to conclude that by using the graph as
a lesson material, students will be able to construct their own understanding on how different
population of species can affect the production of different species in the food chain. Students
will be able to predict the changes in population species and altering the parameter.

Students can understand what the graph indicates when the curve increases or
decreases. They can also explain the increasing or decreasing trend of curve in the graphs.
Furthermore, students can observe and state the different number of population at the end of
this experiment by analyzing the graphs. Teachers also will explain what will happen to the
population of the owls and palm oils if the mice increase and make the students interested to
learn it. When the number of owl increase, the number of mouse decrease and the number of
palm oil increase. When the number of owl decrease, the number of mouse increase and the
number of pal oil palm oil decrease.

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to draw out a conclusion on the
relationship between the he relationship between palm oil,mouse and owl in the food chain..
Students can achieve a higher order thinking skills by analyzing the graphs and comparing
the graphs when different species in food chain is applied.

Conclusion
From the simulation of STELLA, we found the relationship between palm oil, mouse and owl
in the food chain. When the number of owl increase, the number of mouse decrease and the
number of palm oil increase. When the number of owl decrease, the number of mouse
increase and the number of palm oil palm oil decrease. STELLA is the most powerful tool
that help students to create and explore their own models. It also allow student to analyze
data, predict future outcome and allow experiment exploration.

Stella is the software which help in reading data of the experiment by showing through the
graphs. The simulation given gives advantages to students when conducting experiments.
From the simulation, we can see the pattern of changes clearly and precise because less error
is produced as handle using computer.

Besides that, by using Stella, it gives result quickly as soon as we run the parameter.
Therefore students will not waste their time in drawing the graph to see the relationship in the
experiments variables. Moreover, students may have time to analyse and synthesise the
experiment about. Thus, discussion session between students and teacher can practice
students to think critically with much time they have. Next, we can change the parameter
value to study the various linking and relationship of experiment which gives different result.

We can see the benefits we can get from using model and simulation thus it should be
conducted to all schools. Performance of students also getting better when using simulation
as they can get real data of experiments and get clear understanding on what experiment is
about. Stella software should be widely used in Malaysia as they give many benefits to
students as this simulation is much encouraged in teaching as it enhances understanding and
promotes higher order thinking skills.
 REFERENCES

References
There are no sources in the current document.

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