Abstract:
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The general aim is to promote the use of individual- based models (biological agent-based models) in teaching and learning contexts in life sciences and to make
their progressive incorporation into academic curricula easier, complementing other existing modelling strategies
more frequently used in the classroom. Modelling activities for the study of a predator–prey system for a mathematics
classroom in the first year of an undergraduate program in biosystems engineering have been designed and implemented. These activities were designed to put two modelling approaches side by side, an individual-based model
and a set of ordinary differential equations. In order to organize and display this, a system with wolves and sheep
in a confined domain was considered and studied. With the teaching material elaborated and a computer to perform the
numerical resolutions involved and the corresponding individual-based simulations, the students answered questions
and completed exercises to achieve the learning goals set. Students’ responses regarding the modelling of biological
systems and these two distinct methodologies
applied to the study of a predator–prey system were collected
via questionnaires, open-ended queries and face-toface dialogues. Taking into account the positive responses of the students when they were doing these activities, it
was clear that using a discrete individual-based model to
deal with a predator–prey system jointly with a set of ordinary differential equations enriches the understanding of the modelling process, adds new insights and opens novel perspectives of what can be done with computational models versus other models. The complementary views
given by the two modelling approaches were very well assessed by students. |