6TH FORM STUDENTS ABILITY TO ENGAGE IN COMPUTATIONAL MODELING

The paper presents the main conclusions of an exploratory study of the ability of Sixth form students in England to use some different appro aches to computational modelling. The research involves a questionnair e survey of causal diagraming and mathematical knowledge, which aims a t characterizing students' model building capability. Also, it include s an intensive study with pairs of students doing exploratory and expr essive tasks using two modelling systems: IQON and STELLA. Data was ga thered through written notes from observation, written answers given t o questionnaires and data recorded in the computer. Overlapping questi onnaires connected the survey and the intensive study, and comparisons between the use of causal diagrams and IQON were carried out. Results suggest that Sixth form students can undertake valuable work with bot h computational systems.