Fall 2005 / Team Project / MIT
A simulation that uses the familiar notion of spreading rumors in a community to teach users about underlying concepts of graphs and networks.

Using gossip to teach kids about networks
In the Say What? StarLogo simulation, people (agents) represent nodes in a graph, their interactions represent directed edges, and a network is formed based upon the flow of information. At the beginning of each simulation, five random agents receive pieces of information. As the simulation proceeds, agents spread information to one another.

Real-time parameter manipulation
Before and during the simulation, users are able to adjust three parameters: how quickly information is transferred (which may cause multiple nodes to attempt to access the same node at once), how many nodes spread information, and what constitutes a reliable node (how many times two nodes must interact before they share information).

Insights from user testing
Initial user testing revealed that users effectively learned that errors in the network were related to reliability of nodes and speed of transfer. Users were also excited to repeat the simulation after an initial attempt in order to "beat" their earlier result (by spreading correct information in a shorter period of time).

Classroom resources
Say what? is designed to be used in the classroom setting, so that teachers can facilitate drawing connections between the rumor spreading simulation and underlying concepts of information distribution, graphs, and networks. As such, we designed a set of accompanying challenge questions and a facilitator guide, for guided classroom usage.