Building a Simulation of the Spread of a Virus

Alexander Repenning
Andri Ioannidou
Jonathan Phillips

AgentSheets Inc.,
6560 Gunpark Drive, Suite D
Boulder, Colorado 80301

Center of LifeLong Learning & Design Department of Computer Science
Campus Box 430
University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309 303 492-1349, ralex@cs.colorado.edu

Abstract

This Sim Corner column is a hands-on description of how to use the AgentSheets® simulation-authoring tool to 1) create a simulation of a virus attack spreading through a community of people, 2) publish this simulation as a Java applet on the web, and 3) connect the simulation with other educational components. A simple but detailed example was chosen here to illustrate that simulations relevant to school curriculum (for example, math, and in particular, the Connected Mathematics Project curriculum [Connected Math Curriculum]) can be built quickly and do not require the builders to have a programming background. A more general discussion of AgentSheets, including more complex simulations, can be found at the end of this article in the “About AgentSheets” section.

Keywords:

agent-based simulations, multimedia, simulation authoring tools, virus simulations,