Trade.Information

Product Name: STELLA

Product Description

Education and research are most exciting when they move out of the lecture hall and library and provide opportunity to create, experience, and see. STELLA® offers a practical way to dynamically visualize and communicate how complex systems and ideas really work. Whether they are first-time or experienced modelers, teachers, students, and researchers use STELLA to explore and answer endless questions like: "STELLA gives us an enormously powerful and flexible tool for creating environments that allow people to learn by doing." Dennis Meadows President, Laboratory for Interactive Learning Co-author Limits To Growth: The 30 Year Update How does climate change influence an ecosystem over time? Would Hamlet’s fate have changed if he’d killed Claudius earlier? How do oil prices respond to shocks in supply and/or demand? What will happen when the ozone layer is gone? How do basic macroeconomic principles affect income and consumption? The Gold Standard Easy-to-use, STELLA models provide endless opportunities to explore by asking "what if," and watching what happens, inspiring the exciting ah-ha moments of learning. Thousands of educators and researchers have made STELLA the gold standard; using it to study everything from economics to physics, literature to calculus, chemistry to public policy. K-12, college, and research communities have all recognized STELLA’s unique ability to stimulate learning. "In my 35 years of teaching, I’ve never seen a tool like STELLA. It significantly increases a student’s ability to understand and communicate what they’ve learned." Diana Fisher, Wilson HS, Portland, OR Author Modeling Dynamic Systems Shared Learning You know that your students have learned when they can, in turn, explain. STELLA models allow you to communicate how a system works – what goes in, how the system is impacted, what are the outcomes. STELLA supports diverse learning styles with a wide range of storytelling features. Diagrams, charts, and animation help visual learners discover relationships between variables in an equation. Verbal learners might surround visual models with words or attach documents to explain the impact of a new environmental policy. Key Features Mapping and Modeling • Intuitive icon-based graphical interface simplifies model building • Stock and Flow diagrams support the common language of Systems Thinking and provide insight into how systems work • Enhanced stock types enable discrete and continuous processes with support for queues, ovens, and enhanced conveyors • Causal Loop Diagrams present overall causal relationships • Model equations are automatically generated and made accessible beneath the model layer • Built-in functions facilitate mathematical, statistical, and logical operations • Arrays simply represent repeated model structure • Sub-models support hierarchical model structures Simulation and Analysis • Simulations "run" systems over time • Sensitivity analysis reveals key leverage points and optimal conditions • Partial model simulations focus analysis on specific sectors of the model • Results presented as graphs, tables, animations, QuickTime movies, and files • Dynamic data import/export links to Microsoft® Excel Communication • Flight simulators and dashboards describe model components and facilitate manipulation Communication • Flight simulators and dashboards describe model components and facilitate manipulation • Input devices include knobs, sliders, switches, and buttons • Output devices highlight outcomes with warning flashers, text, graphs, tables, and reports • Storytelling supports step-by-step model unveiling • Causal Loop Diagrams present dominant feedback loops within structure • Sketchable graphs allow easy comparison of expected results with actual simulations • Save as Runtime option creates full-screen, runtime models • Multimedia support triggers graphics, movies, sounds, and text messages based on model conditions • Model security features allow locking or password protection System Requirements Windows: 233 MHz Pentium Microsoft Windows™ 2000/XP (English Version) 64 MB RAM 70 MB hard disk space 16-bit color Soundblaster-compatible sound card QuickTime Macintosh: 120 MHz PowerPC Mac OS 10.2.8 or higher (English Version) 128 MB RAM 70 MB hard disk space Thousands of colors QuickTime