NetLogo climate and complex systems model set with student guidebooks and teacher scripts

Design · All designs
Evidence · 6 claims (5 for, 1 mixed) · 2 studies (2 causal), q2–q3 · 2 of 2 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description

The study's main learning materials were four weather and climate agent-based models developed in NetLogo by a participating science teacher (Carbon Cycle, Climate with Feedback, Wind and Storm, Climate with Water Feedback), plus four non-climate analog models from the NetLogo Model Library (Wolf-Sheep Predation, Ants Foraging, Birds Flocking, Forest Fire). Supporting materials included an online Student Guidebook with daily instructions, challenge problems, and answer fields, and per-condition Teacher's Guides with instructional scripts that were "virtually identical" across conditions except for which models the teacher referenced.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Teachers received professional development on the PF approach, the content, and the NetLogo models
• Challenge problems requiring climate ideas combined with crosscutting complex systems concepts

Constraints

• The climate models were built by the content-expert teacher, though the far transfer advantage held in classes taught by teachers with no involvement in model design

Target Learners

• ninth-grade science students

Learning Goals

• climate change concepts
• complex systems principles
• transfer of structural concepts across domains

Claims

• PF students scored significantly higher than DI students on climate explanatory knowledge [+W]
• Both one-model and two-model productive failure groups significantly improved weather and climate declarative knowledge, with no difference between conditions [+W]
• Ninth-grade students in a Productive Failure design scored significantly higher than Direct Instruction students on complex systems explanatory knowledge about climate [+W]
• Both treatment groups significantly improved complex systems explanatory knowledge, and students taught by the content-expert teacher learned more than those taught by less expert teachers [+W]
• PF and DI groups showed no significant difference in climate declarative knowledge gains [~W]
• DI students relied on notes rather than exploring the agent-based models, while PF classes showed lively collaborative exploration and questioning [+W]

Related Designs

Examples

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Key Sources

• Jacobson, Michael, Goldwater, Micah, Markauskaite, Lina, Lai, Polly, Kapur, Manu, Roberts, Gareth, & Hilton, Courtney. (2020). Schema abstraction with productive failure and analogical comparison: Learning designs for far across domain transfer. Learning and Instruction, 65, Article number: 101222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.101222

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	netlogo-climate-complexity-model-set-jacobson-2020
title	NetLogo climate and complex systems model set with student guidebooks and teacher scripts
description	The study's main learning materials were four weather and climate agent-based models developed in NetLogo by a participating science teacher (Carbon Cycle, Climate with Feedback, Wind and Storm, Climate with Water Fee...
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-23
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — jacobson-2020

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