MPIDR Technical Report

An educational simulation tool to enhance the understanding of population dynamics

Abstract

There is a dearth of software tools targeted at the general public that provide users with an intuitive understanding of population dynamics and the underlying demographic processes (fertility, mortality, and migration). This existing gap motivated us to implement such a tool in the software package NetLogo. In this technical working paper, we describe the technical specifications of the tool and provide access to the underlying NetLogo code. In addition, we outline the lessons users could learn from our educational tool.