Making Models
Exhibit [Return to listing page]
Blue Wing, Level 2
Scientists use models to better understand the real world, and visitors to this exhibit can use a wide variety of models, scientific and otherwise, to learn and practice some of the basic tools from the scientific toolbox.
Models are best known as representatives for physical objects, but they also help to conceptualize phenomena, systems, processes and abstractions. They take the place of other things to help us understand them better than we would if they stood by themselves. However, useful as they are, all models are flawed in one way or another.
Visitors to the exhibit can engage in activities that identify, use, analyze, and even create models. Compare and contrast nine different models of the human heart, each one emphasizing certain properties to the exclusion of others. Create a mental model of a scene based on clues from hidden objects, or join friends to use software that explores the nature of cooperation and competition. Observe what a computer game about money and a plastic grasshopper have in common, and see why a doll house, a plastic architectural model under polarized light, and a computer simulation are all considered models.
A favorite in this exhibit, the "Virtual FishTank®," immerses visitors in a virtual undersea world populated by brightly-colored, cartoon-like fish. Visitors select attributes and behaviors for their fish, launch their creations into the tank, and then see how a few simple choices result in complex behaviors and patterns for a whole group of fish. This computer simulation provides a model of a leaderless system in operation.
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