In Modeling Your World today, Monte and Eric taught the students in the class about algorithms. Algorithms are a step-by-step problem-solving procedure, or in other words, an established, recursive, computational procedure for solving a problem in a finite number of steps.
To teach the students about algorithms, the students were divided into two groups. Each group wrote a set of instructions for the other group to follow on how to tie a shoe. The students realized from each other’s instructions that they weren’t specific enough. In the next activity, the students were asked to write a set of instructions for Eric to perform to create a toasted bagel with cream cheese on it.
After break, the class used the knowledge about algorithms that they had gathered earlier in class to write a SIR model in Vensim, with susceptible, infected, and recovered variables.