Simulation in the Service of Society

In our August issue we presented ex cerpts and comments to tell you about a book Modeling the Environment by Andrew Ford, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Regional Planning at Washington State Univer sity, Pullman, Washington. If you missed that writeup, you can find out all about the book at http:// www.islandpress.org/ford. Or better yet, you can read the very interesting book. What follows is Appendix K from the book, which ap pealed to me particularly because of its perceived potential ity for teaching by appealing to students' penchant for game playing. Individual students, or groups, can compete to achieve goals suggested by the author—and learn a lot about river systems and their control. It would seem that the Idagon model would also lend itself to modification for the study of real river systems. It is de scribed in the following edited excerpt from the book.—JM