Today, the workshop students learned the very basics of javascript. Phil List and Aaron Weeden started off with introducing how computers read instructions through a simple exercise. Within the exercise one person is the computer and the other person is the programmer, together they have to draw a house. The programmer gives the directions as the computer tries to draw the house based on the instructions. Following this assignment the mentors introduce a program called "Bouncing Blocks" to the workshop students. The program displays a bunch of blocks that bounce randomly off the walls. Phil and Aaron went through the program's code showing certain aspects of the code such as key words, functions, variables, strings, etc.. After the instructors discussed these aspects, they let the workshop students free to edit the code in order to get a better understanding of the different functions that the program features.
After Lunch, Jennifer Houchins taught Netlogo, another agent-based programming language and integrated modeling environment. Jennifer had the students pull up the Netlogo disease model and experimented with creating the ultimate plague. After exploring the model, students went for the record number of dead people, which for this group was 1816. After the fun, students created their own Netlogo simulations. With the help of apprentices and Jennifer, students were able to design a basic simulation before it was time to break for reflections.