Go West Scenario of KESE

This book is dedicated to my grandson Andrew Giest who showed my how to educate the high tech generation.

One December evening as I was trying to learn the simulation game, Rail Road Tycoon III, that my 7 year old grandson seem to be enjoying on his new Mac computer. The outcome was one of those breakthrough moments of clarity.

Andrew walked up. "Let me see," he said. "Oh, you are not making any money. Let me see your stock (this is a graph of price over time). Let me see that guys stock. That guy is doing better. We should sell your's and buy his. Why haven't you build track to Chicago. Why haven't you ..."

In a few minutes this 7 year old exhibited an understanding business strategy, operation, economic returns, and investment. All without reading a single text book.

At this moment the future best path for education our youth became clear to me. They learn by doing and computer games provide a rich environment for this type of learning. Specifically, games that provide complex simulations of real world challenges - manage a city, build a railroad, run a manufacturing plant, etc. - build mental mapping and strategy skills.

This moment with my grandson forged a number of long held beliefs, across a broad range of experiences, into a consolidated vision.

First, I had been a "gamer" for over 30 years. Having been exposed to business simulations at the University of Nevada as an undergraduate, I chose Carnegie Mellon business school for my graduate work mainly because of the world class business game that was integrated into the curriculum. I was not disappointed. I found it the highlight of the two year at CMU. Our team spend many hours in the computer lab constructing quantitative marketing models to understand the consumer behavior in the game. Interestingly, this is exactly what I did a few year later for the clients of the largest advertising agency at that time. Thus, by personal experience, I know that simulations provide rich learning experiences.

My second bias came from playing competitive chess as a young adult. While others see kids wasting time with game, I see many of the same thing I use to win chess games. Good gamers have an extensive mental map of the game and a storehouse of past experience. Just like a chess play can tell you the strategic outcome five or six moves into any major opening, games can tell you what will happen may levels into the game if you pursue a specific strategy. Just like chess players can remember ever move from games years ago, games can tell you what happened at a specific decision point in a gamers played months ago. Both chess players and gamers build extensive databases of knowledge over time, both use this to build a mental map of the challenges they face, and both use these tool to craft winning strategies.

This is why I always find it interesting when educators complain about the attention span and learning skill of todays youth. The mental skills and the laser focus exhibited by games show this generation to be the equal of any. the generation that has fallen behind are us, the adults. We are using 18th century teaching strategies on 21st century kids. We, the adults, have to get better.

Core Principles

This book is driven by the core principles of the KESE project and SQI microPublishing.

KESE Principles

The Knowledges and Economics Simulation Engine (KESE) project promotes these core values:

SQI Principles

Commitment to Instant Publishing. This book is a working example of the SQI microPublishing philosophy of instant publishing. This book is a work-in-progress. All of the material is in draft form (some in rough draft form). Some of the sections have example code with little of the description provided. Some sections have notes that need to be expanded to full text at some point in the future. However, all of the material fulfills the SQI microPublishing concept that any insight or new knowledge has value and needs to be quickly shared into the community of interest.

Why Read This Book

First, you don't. This is not a book you read.

Go West is a guide and working companion for kids, young adults, and learning facilitators interested in acquiring skills in programming, simulation modeling, game concepts, behavior modeling, and complex data visualization.

Note GO West Python Tutorial. Introduce the companion book that provides a discussion of the Python statements and programming processes used in each Go West section. This is for the beginning programmer or some one with programming experience but new to Python. This places all the discussion about constructing a simulation, modeling behaviors and knowledge acquisition in this book. Helpful insights into programming are provided in the tutorial.

Participants and Facilitators

Author Notes

Note Authors Add. The document structure is here: Document Settings