Empirical modelling (EM) is a powerful tool for building
educational software. EM is based on a concept of
development through setting states of the system,
experimental exploration, observing the result and
making necessary changes. EM’s development was
initiated by Meurig Beynon at the University of
Warwick in 1981.
This paper describes the process of development of
an educational tool for computer science A-level
students. Today the current level and availability
of technology makes educational software of prime
importance to the whole educational system.
Furthermore Empirical Modelling is closely related
with the concept of constructionism which
facilitates educational process. The reason being
that EM focuses on building systems through
defining states of the systems, agents and
interaction with the system in an exploratory
manner. [8] According to the author [4]
constructionism is based on the idea of "Giving
children good things to do so that they can learn
by doing much better than they could before" as
opposed to instructionism, where children are
taught in a static environment. Therefore the model
should allow children to do something exciting
rather than providing them with the text version of
the algorithm.
The reason why the topic of search algorithms has
been selected is that understanding search
algorithms is quintessential to understanding
artificial intelligence as well as Computer Science
as a whole.
A star search is a best-first heuristic search
algorithm. This is a member of the informed search
group of algorithms. These algorithms, unlike
uninformed searches are based on the assumption
that some problem specific knowledge exists prior
to the search. This allows the machine to make an
‘intelligent’ guess of the desired solution.
Best-first search is the general approach that
selects the node for expansion based on the value
of an evaluation function f(n). A star is based on
calculating the heuristic function f(n) as a sum of
the g(n) and h(n), where g(n) is the cost of
getting from the start point to node ‘n’ and h(n)
is an estimate of the cost to get from node ‘n’ to
the target.
Educational software is a separate group in the
software classification with its own distinct
requirements (e.g. ease of use, interactivity).
Analysis of these requirements is a crucial part in
developing the model.
Understanding A star is important in understanding
all informative algorithms as it lays down the
foundations. This is why I believe that this model
will positively contribute to educational software.
