Events
Events
An interactive workshop introducing computational thinking to kids 10-14
at
July 20 & 23
Hang out with some of the greatest minds in science!
Join us for interactive activities that will tickle your brain with new and exciting ideas!
<location>
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Denver Tech Center
Denver, CO
<date>
Wednesday July 20
7-9pm
Saturday July 23
1-3pm
1-3pm
<cost>
FREE!!
No fees or charges!
Evolution in Action! at Charlestown High - December 2015
Featuring some of the Evolution in Action! interactive activities, an hour long Evolution in Action! workshop piloted on 10th of December 2015 with Boston public school, Charlestown High. The workshop ran with 13 students grades 9-11 with varying levels of fluency in English with the help of a faculty member, Dr. Leonardo Gomez.
Opening with an ice-breaker called Stay Between, the students learn and experience how simple rules can create chaotic and complex systems. The room becomes quite animated as the students mill around attempting to stay between their 2 chosen people.
The Prisoner’s Dilemma exercise uses gaming theory or strategic decision making to analyze decisions made under uncertainty. The Prisoner’s Dilemma is expanded upon in The Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. Playing several times with the same opponent teaches how payoffs and strategies change when the game is played multiple times. In the Evolutionary version of The Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma each student is provided with a strategy for the game and earns a "fitness" based on playing it. With fitness in hand, we then collectively act out the steps of evolutionary selection and replication.
Shantou University, China
Before Evolution in Action! There was Evolutionary Process and Systems (EPS) taught to native Chinese speakers at Shantou University in China.
Evolutionary Processes and Systems (EPS) is a project inaugurated in 2012 centered on learning. It teaches students to regard evolution as a learning process — one that can be computationalized, and to reflect better upon their own learning. The learning goal of EPS is to instill upon students a new lens through which they can view complex adaptive systems, including themselves.
EPS teaches an abstracted view of evolution as an adaptive process of improvement dependent upon population-based selection, and replication with variation. It encourages students to recognize evolution in action around them, not only in the conventional context of biology. It illustrates how the evolutionary process guides the emergence and adaptation of intelligent systems. It uses this abstraction of evolution to forge a clear connection to the sort of computation that enables Artificial Intelligence. Students specifically learn about Genetic Algorithms through hands on exercises that evolve software-based strategies that power the intelligent AI players within a simple but engaging digital game called Tron.
EPS was the inspiration for the Evolution in Action! workshop.
Shantou U students act out The Mating Game interactive activity
Undergrad students at Shantou develop the evolutionary algorithm for TRON
To read more about EPS and Shantou go to:
