Computer Modelling for the Young—and Not So Young—Scientist

The laboratory is the natural home for the teaching of science where the real world can be formalised and controlled. Here, data gathering processes, now greatly enhanced by the use of the microcomputer, can reveal patterns and relationships demanding explanations and enabling models to be created which will lead to a greater understanding of phenomena. There is a need for a constant interaction between the roles which students adopt as experimentalists and as theorists. We argue here that computers have an important role in supporting theory-building by students. Exploring the consequences of theories is something which it is unrealistic to expect many students to be able to do without the help of the computer. The use of the computer as a modelling tool is thus a desirable means of complementing the careful measurement, observation and evidence gathering which characterise the Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL). The effective integration of modelling within the context of MBL will be discussed.We can develop explanations by creating models in a variety of ways. A model may be created as a set of quantitative relationships between the system variables, or a phenomena may be modelled through making visual representations of variables and indicating possible interactions between variables in a qualitative way. A third possibility we can explore is to model not through variables at all but through representations of objects and events. These three contrasting approaches to modelling will be discussed and illustrated by referring to examples of software which make this possible. These different approaches to modelling will be discussed in the historic order of the software development and references will be limited to examples of software which are familiar to the authors as developers and users. Readers viewing the discussion from another perspective may be aware of other examples of relevant software.