About Us

StarLogo Nova is a block-based programming website aimed towards late-elementary to high school students. Users will be able to model real-life 3D simulations, learn about computational modeling, and create multi-agent games. The platform is being developed by the Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP), directed by Eric Klopfer, at MIT with Daniel Wendel serving as lead developer.

History

StarLogo Nova is a part of the "Logo family tree," which began development in the early to mid 1960s at MIT by Wally Feurzeig, Seymour Papert, and Cynthia Solomon. Logo was created as a tool to improve the way that children think and solve problems with its developers emphasizing the importance of being a simple language that is understandable to younger students. By 1969, Logo began being used in elementary through middle schools with a real-life turtle robot being moved around to draw certain patterns and shapes onto a real-life canvas. There were also virtual versions of the turtle that had similar functionality. These "turtle robots" were popular up till the early 90s.

Beginning in the mid-late 90s, StarLogo began development under Mitchel Resnick and Eric Klopfer at MIT as an extension of the Logo language. StarLogo was originally designed so students could model or simulate the behavior of simulated systems with the first versions being text-based and running on Macintosh computers.

In order to make it more accessible and understandable to younger users, StarLogo TNG started development in the early-mid 2000s. The key difference between StarLogo and StarLogo TNG is moving from text-based language to block-based. As the archived predecessor of StarLogo Nova, it also includes 3-D graphics, sound, block-based interface, and keyboard input. Finally, in the early 2010s, StarLogo Nova began its development, which transitioned many of the old functions of StarLogo TNG into a web interface along with new features.

Acknowledgements

StarLogo Nova is supported through funding by the following STEP projects, BioGraph, Biograph 2.0, and DC Models, along with the Litzinger Road Ecology Foundation and Linde Family Foundation. All of these projects and foundations are based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Any opinions, findings, or conclusions expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily the views of the NSF. The NSF and other funders do not endorse or condone any specific statements or content released by StarLogo Nova.

Credits

StarLogo Nova is being developed by people working on StarLogo Nova at MIT. Individual contributors have not been added yet as we are currently updating our credits.