Using Models for Analysis

And speaking of being on the living room floor, working, there is this observation from over the weekend.

One of my four and a half year old Grandsons had been playing "Angry Birds" with me on the iPad.  He is pretty good at it and knows to share it by bringing up the next play after his turn and shrinking the screen for the next player.

On Monday I went to visit my friend Juan Paron, down in Woodbridge, VA, and I told my Grandson he could play the game but that he should teach his younger sister how to play (turns out she is still to young to understand how to play).  When I got back I was informed that my Grandson was being withdrawn from the "Angry Birds" because he was saying that he was "k-i-l-l-i-n-g" the pigs (the targets of the "Angry Birds" (because the pigs had stolen the birds' eggs).  OK, he is a little young to be thinking in terms of "killing" and "death" and all the implications therein.

What was interesting was that he then proceeded to take his wooden blocks and build an "Angry Birds" like structure and then hid his sister's farm animal pigs within the structure, just like in "Angry Birds".  He then attacked the structure, as in the game, but the pigs did not blow up.  So, he reasoned from this that the pigs must "go somewhere else".  He then proceeded to explain this to his Mother.

While I see the flaw in his reasoning, I liked the fact that he built a model of the problem and tried to draw conclusions from that model.  He may have a future as a Systems Analyst.

Regards  —  Cliff