ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to solve issues both of gardening-based academics and science standards by supplementing these with a third curricular element, computational literacy practices. In particular, agent-based modeling enables students to investigate and reason about complex scientific phenomena, such as garden ecosystems. Used to enrich instruction in many scientific domains, modeling-and-simulation environments such as NetLogo allow users to manipulate a system's behavioral rules so as to understand how macro-scale phenomena emerge from micro-scale interactions. Ultimately, the model of a garden ecosystem should represent the actual school garden and enable students to simulate its authentic problems through modeling-based inquiry. Ongoing analyses, interface design, and debugging will allow for the continued development of a series of tasks by which students can progress in their knowledge of gardens, science, and computer-based modeling. With the unveiling of Next Generation Science Standards, teachers are tasked with creating new models of instruction and assessment, yet few structures exist connecting these standards to the outdoor environment.
