Complex systems is a catch-all term for systems made up of many pieces which interact with one another. A good example of a complex system is a school of fish. Fish schools perform complicated maneuvers to avoid such predators as sharks, but the individual fish in the school aren't really aware of the school's overall behavior -- they are too busy trying to avoid becoming a meal. But the group or school behavior is considerably more complex than one might expect just from watching the actions of a single fish. And you are undoubtedly aware of "group dynamics" in the classroom. We think kids will have fun imagining what it's like to be a fish, or a bird, or a car in a traffic jam. And they can learn a lot of science with very little effort on your part or theirs.
Current research related to complex systems includes such diverse topics as studying the way neurons interact to create short-term memory, developing models to predict the way organisms might adapt to environmental changes, and even creating the animated stampede sequence in the movie the Lion King. If teachers are interested in learning more about complex systems and current research, a bibliography, including where to look on the internet, is provided. The following activities are designed to spark students' curiosity about interaction and communication within many types of groups or systems. Students will observe, interact, discuss, report -- not only will they carry out important aspects of the scientific method, but they can do so through cooperative experiences, whole-language experiences, and other methods that would blend in with your curriculum.
These activities work best with larger groups of students -- perhaps you will want to team up with another teacher. These activities are also a good opportunity to invite special education students to join in. Activities will probably take at least 45 minutes to complete, which includes time to introduce the activity, organize the students and perform the activity, and have some time for post-activity discussion. Most activities can also be developed into a longer lesson or a set of lessons using ideas presented at the end of the activities or by teacher/student brainstorming. If you have access to a video camera and can tape the activities, you could use the video during post-activity discussion. We could provide you with blank tapes or, if you are in the Raleigh area, we can come tape for you and provide assistance during the field testing.
We are working on a video of material related to the activities of project, ask about it
We would especially like comments about how the activities might fit in with existing curriculum and post-activity questions and evaluation and assessment ideas. Please feel free to be as creative as you like as you and your students run through the activities. Give us a call or send email about any aspect of the activities, and please forward any of this material to others you feel would be interested.
*Students will investigate how different methods of communication affect the transmission of the wave through the group.
*Students will make observations during the activity.
*Students can participate in a discussion about what they have done after completing the activity, or they might write a summary.
*Students will work cooperatively for the success of the group.
Some things to try (you and the students can think of more):
* students hold hands (will look like a transverse wave) - you could also start with all the students raising their connected hands up and then have them rapidly lower and raise their hands all at once, it will probably get out of sync enough to create interesting patterns
* pass an object along - start with just one object and add another - what happens if objects meet at one person?
* students raise one leg as wave passes by
* close one or both eyes - how will the students decide to transmit the wave?
* students in a line rather than a circle - students could make the wave reflect at the end of the line
* wave goes around corner (into a hallway or some other room)
* students stand in a circle with their backs to the inside of the circle
* students say a letter of the alphabet, in order, as the wave travels along
* students make a certain sound and pass it along
* students jump up as the wave passes by
* students have two different colored cards and as the wave passes, they must hold up the correct color
* have two lines of students race to pass ball down their lines and back (each student must touch the ball), gradually increase the spacing of the students - suggest tossing the ball
stopwatch (optional)
video of fans in a stadium creating a wave (optional)
2. Assemble the students in a large circle, facing each other. Try to use a large room or go outdoors.
3. If you have not shown a video of the wave, ask if a student can explain to the group what the wave is or if a few students know how to demonstrate the wave for the others.
4. Get the students performing a basic wave with no limits to their communication. The teacher may want to lead the first couple of waves for younger students, to model what is expected.
5. Repeat the wave giving various instructions about the students' communication (see list above).
6. You may want to use the stopwatch to record how different ways of communication speed up or slow down the transmission of the wave.
7. If you have access to a video camera, record the activity for students to view later.
Which waves get messed up easily?
What waves moved fastest?
How did you communicate directions to the group?
Was it better to have lots of rules, or not so many?
How do you think really large groups of strangers (like fans at a football game) communicate to make a wave?
Suppose a new person joined the group, how would she learn what to do?
Have a set of dominoes that students can arrange on the floor and tip over into waves.
* Students will experience some of the issues (communication, cooperation, courtesy) that come up when large groups try to occupy limited spaces.
* Students will make observations during the activity.
* Students will write reports of their observations/share observations orally. Students can work in cooperative groups to write reports or could use think-pair-share* to report orally.
* a cooperative learning strategy: students are in groups of two, a question is posed to the class, students have time to think individually, then they discuss the question with their partners, then one of the partners shares the pair's thoughts with the entire class
This activity requires a room or a field where the teacher can set up"roads" and/or "parking lots". Read through each traffic situation listed below and decide which ones you will need to set up for. Some ways to create the roads and parking lots:
-rearranging furniture in a room. If you can, use a cafeteria that has long tables.
-putting tape down on the floor or field (make sure there is nothing sticking up that might trip a student)
-use plastic cones (maybe the physical education department has some) to make exits, or use existing doorways
Parking lots don't need to have individual spaces marked off, but you may want to divide the lanes of a road having two-way traffic.
During these activities, students can carry some sort of vehicle. These vehicles will be especially useful in activities with "parking lots". Students can bring in a favorite toy car or truck, or you can have students draw cars or cut pictures of their favorite cars out of magazines.
tape or plastic cones to mark off roads, exits, parking lots (see Introduction)
video of traffic (optional)
* In this situation, everyone is leaving some event at the same time, for example, leaving a movie. Students will need to start the activity by putting their cars in a "parking lot". Then the students should be taken to a location somewhere past the edge of the parking lot representing the theater. The students will all get to leave the "theater" at the same time. Students must get to the area that has been designated as the parking lot, pick up their car from where they "parked" it, and then try to exit the parking lot. Vary the number of exits from the parking lot and repeat the activity.
* This time the students will act out traffic going through an intersection where the lights aren't working. You will need to have at least one student who can act as a police officer to direct traffic. Vary this activity by having one, two, or more police officers directing traffic and by changing the number of roads coming into the intersection.
* Students can be cars trying to enter a main road from a side street. Vary this activity by having the main road be either a one-way or a two-way street and have either light or heavy traffic on the main road. You may want to tell students that the cars on the main road have the right-of-way, and remind them that they are trying to avoid accidents*.
*There could also be students designated as tow-trucks who could go and retrieve students who have been in an accident. Students in the accident would have to stand still, blocking traffic, until the tow-truck could move them out of the way.
* Students will see what types of behavior makes it easier or harder to avoid a predator.
* Students will learn about the predator/prey relationship.
video of fish (optional)
2. Ask a student or students to define the words predator and prey for the rest of the class, then have students brainstorm some predators of fish.
3. Students will need to be in a large room or outdoors. Assign at least one student to be a predator, depending on the size of the class. Let different students be predators throughout the activity. Varying the number of predators might be an interesting way to branch out with the activity.
4. Students who are assigned to be the fish will run around together as a "school" trying to avoid the predator(s). If they are captured, they must stay out of the "water" until you rerun the activity. You will need to decide what the predators need to do to capture a fish depending on the skills of the students -- one-handed touch, two-handed touch, etc.
5. Rerun the activity with students behaving as different types of predators that they brainstormed earlier. Some predators to try:
* Sharks
* Octopus
* Humans using a big fishing net (human predators could join arms and encircle one or more fish)
* Humans fishing with bait (secretly give the human predators pieces of candy -- they can try to trick the other students into coming close enough to be captured)
* Oil slick (not exactly a predator, but a small number of students could join arms and try to encircle one or more fish, every fish that got captured would then join the oil slick students and help them capture more fish)
6. Students could watch a video of fish*, or an aquarium if you have one, and compare what they did to what they see the fish do. If you are able to videotape the students during the activity, that would be fun to use for comparison.
How could swimming with a school help a fish escape a predator?
What kinds of predators are hardest to escape from? Why?
* Students will observe each other during the activity and start thinking about how large groups of animals (like a flock of birds) interact.
* Students can compare and contrast bird activity with human activity or other animals' activity.
video of real birds landing on a wire (optional) We are working on a video of material related to the activities of project
2. Have the students stand away from the wire so that they can see the entire length they are using for the activity.
3. Students will run over one by one to land on the wire ( land facing the group). If you have access to a video camera, the activity can be taped for discussion later.
4. You could:
6. You could also try the activity with restrictions on where the students can land. For example, students must land next to someone who has on the same color shirt as they do.
Predict: What might happen if the wire were made shorter?
Measuring: Give students a paper with different length lines. Make cut-outs of bird pictures or shapes and see how many will fit on each of the lines.
* Students will observe ants to see what ants can accomplish individually or in groups.
* Students will record data during field observations by drawing, writing notes, or creating a list as a class (in this case, an adult could record observations for young students).
*In his book, Seven Experiments That Could Change the World, Rupert Sheldrake describes an interesting experiment about termites
ant farm (optional)
2. Students should pick a spot to sit quietly and observe the ants. While they sit, they can write out notes or draw pictures of what they see. The amount of time you give the students to observe will probably depend on how interesting a field site you can find and on the students' attention spans. We hope that as they settle down, they will enjoy quietly watching the ants and will make some interesting observations.
3. If an adult is recording observations for a group of students, the students should still be given time at the beginning to observe quietly. Perhaps you will want to set up a large pad of paper to record the observations on.
4. After the observation period, the class can discuss the different things they saw the ants do. Make a class list if one was not made during the field observations. Especially ask the students about how they think ants might be communicating and whether they noticed any of the ants working together.
Have students draw a picture of what they think the inside of the anthill looks like -- are there special rooms, is it just a maze of tunnels, etc.
The class could make up a poem or story about ants.
* Students will make observations and comparisons.
Computer simulations of flocking birds have been developed based on the following bird behaviors (see Craig Reynolds and his BOIDS ):
1. Cohesion--steering to move toward the average position of local flockmates.
2. Alignment--steering toward the average heading of local flockmates.
3. Steering to avoid crowding local flockmates.
In addition, "obstacle avoidance" allowed the flocks to fly through simulated environments while dodging static objects and a low-priority goal seeking behavior caused the flock to follow a scripted path.
In this activity, students will run around a field or large room trying to create and maintain flocks of different shapes. They will make observations about which shapes are easiest to maintain.
2. Ask students what shapes they have seen flocks of birds use when flying. Students may say they have seen lines, clumps, "V" shapes, etc.
3. Have the students start by "flying" (running around the field) around in the shapes they mentioned.
4. Have a few students stand back and observe the students who are "flying" to see how well those students can maintain the shapes as they move around the field.
5. Have the students come back together and discuss briefly which shapes seemed to work the best. Get impressions from both the "flying" students and from the observers.
6. Brainstorm with the students some new flock shapes to try. They will again be observing to see how successful they are at maintaining those shapes. Some flock shapes you might try:
* circles
* letters of the alphabet (start with "V" like geese, but then do all the letters -- why is "V" a good choice for flying?)
Fact: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater.
* Students will learn about the five senses.
objects that can be experienced with the 5 different senses
2. Next, students take a ball of yarn or string and pass it around until they are all linked together. I am curious about how intricate the webs can get before students might end up dropping their yarn during the course of the activity or they might get too tangled up and trip or fall. Make sure that the yarn is not too tight.
3. Designate someone in the web to be "the brain", the destination of upcoming messages. Different students can be the brain during the activity. Perhaps they should wear a special hat so that the rest of the web can keep track of where the brain is.
4. Begin to pass various verbal messages, simulating a nerve impulses to the brain. These can be sounds, words, phrases, etc. Students can only pass the message along to someone they are connected to with a strand of yarn. Start the messages from various places in the web.
5. After the students get comfortable passing simple messages you can try some variations:
* Using various objects (perfume, sandpaper, bell), have students create messages using the five senses. For example, if the teacher holds some perfume so that a student on the edge of the web can smell it, the message could be "I smell flowers" or, if the teacher has a piece of ice that a student could touch, the message could be "I touched something cold". Be creative with objects you have available. You may need to tell younger students which of the 5 senses they are using with each object.
* Have messages that "the brain" can respond to. For example, "touched something hot" goes to the brain, brain sends back "move your hand". The message would need to make it back to the place on the web where it originated. Older students could have different parts of the web be specific body parts: arms, hands, legs, eyes, nose, that would send and receive different messages. Example, the "eyes" see a big dog, and send message to the brain. Brain sends message to "legs" to walk away, or to "arms" to pet the dog. The students could make some sort of hat or other visual aid to help locate the various body parts.
* Try making the web different shapes and see if the messages get sent faster. Maybe an eyeball shape with the brain at one corner would focus the transmittal.
These books are related to some of the preceeding activities.
Picture Books
Junior Books
Fact: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater.