Integrating Agent-Based Modeling and Indigenous Perspectives for Complex Systems Education

• In Event: 61.050 - Constructivist Learning Environments and Participants' Reasoning

Abstract

This paper seeks to illustrate how Indigenous practices of storytelling in the context of fabric design and Western scholarship on educational computing and complex systems can be integrated in the context of complex systems education. We introduce Grafemos, a learning environment where children can learn about complex systems by engaging in the design and creation of a non-computational language for modeling (i.e., representing and explaining) emergent phenomena. Our work, conducted jointly with members of the Xenacoj’ community in Guatemala, illustrates how children can begin to develop multi-level explanations of socio-ecological issues central to the community’s well-being, jointly with elders, as they engage in language design and modeling of both personal, relational narratives, and ecological interdependence.

Authors

• Marilú Lam-Herrera, University of Calgary

• Group Ixoqi' Aj Kemola', Mujeres Tejedoras de Santo Domingo Xenacoj

• Pratim Sengupta, University of Calgary