Conceptual Modeling as Pedagogy

AGU Spring 2006 Poster Paper

The Poster
  When you open The Poster (PDF) below you can view the full poster; the text may be too small to read in this format, but it is the layout of the poster that we want to discuss first. There are four rows; the first row provides the title, authors, and abstract. The next three rows are three examples of applying conceptual modeling procedures to create a a more complete understanding of the system being considered.
  The first example (2nd row) concerns the relationship between the Earth's effective temperature and the Sun.
  The second example (3rd row) explores how "greenhouse warming" works, how the surface is warmed.
  The third example (4th row) investigates how wind generators work and their efficiency.

  There are five columns for each example (rows 2 - 4).
  In the first column a question is proposed it is then refined and focused to relate to a specific system behavior. This is presented as a fictitious dialog between a student and a teacher.
  In the second column the components and inter-relationships that are fundamental to the system's behavior are identified.
  In the third column information is collected that will be needed for the conceptual model.
  In the forth column a conceptual model is formulated in the form of a drawing and associated text.
  In the fifth (double wide) column the conceptual model is migrated to a computer model using STELLA. The diagram on the left is the schematic of the model system diagram, and the diagram on the right is the actual STELLA system diagram.

The Poster (PDF)

The Decomposed Poster
  We have decomposed the poster into slides; each cell in the poster viewed above is now an individual slide. To assist you in navagating the decomposed poster we have color coded the rows of the poster.
  The 1st row is now two slides with a white background.
  The 2nd row (example 1) is now six slides with a yellow background; cell 5 is split into two slides.
  The 3rd row (example 2) is now six slides with a pink background; cell 5 is split into two slides.
  The 4th row (example 3) is now eleven slides with a green background; several cells have been split to show details.






If you do not have the STELLA application on your computer you will need this free application to run the models.
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The three models shown in the poster can be downloaded below.

Earth Effective Temperature (.zip)

Greenhouse Earth (.zip)


Wind Generator
  (.zip)

EXTRAS:
Movie of wind generator

Download a lecture on wind generators, PDF
General Electric's wind energy web pages.
The wind energy farm near Lamar, Colorado.