Simulations in the classroom

At Southland Boys' High School simulations are included in the course work for Sixth Form Certificate Applied Mathematics and elsewhere in the curriculum from Form 3 to Form 7, that is, with students aged from 13 to 18 years old. The reasons for their inclusion are: 1) their wide-ranging applications; 2) the simplicity of the methodology; 3) the experience they give students in elementary experimental design; 4) the opportunity they provide for the study of situations that are not readily explored by other methods. It is also important that simulations are included which analyse phenomena or deal with problems that can be solved by other methods to give an idea of the reliability of simulation techniques.