A spaceship observes changing patterns on a newly discovered planet. Again an empirical facility, the ability to observe the patterns, is at the heart of this dialog. Students input patterns and watch them evolve in time.
Students, after making many observations of patterns, then are encouraged to create theories about their evolution. Partial theories are developed first, for simple cases. The patterns are based on the game of Life as developed by John Conway and made well known by Martin Gardner's discussions in his Scientific American column. But unlike the usual presentation of Life, where the rules are stated first, the aim in the computer dialog is to discover the rules for pattern evolution from the evidence.
The emphasis is on prediction, with each tentative rule developed slowly and carefully. The student is asked to use a proposed rule to predict what the next generation pattern will look like, and then compares this prediction with the actual pattern. The learner will eventually discover the correct laws. With various help for people in trouble, the experience turns out to be successful for almost all users.