A student uses a computer to determine the effects of increasing pollutants on the animals in a zoo. What is this kind of modeling called

A student uses a computer to determine the effects of increasing pollutants on the animals in a zoo. This kind of modeling is called a simulation.

In the studies involving a simulation, the system being studied is first simplified into a set of key interacting variables that contribute to its dynamics. Then a computer program is written to recreate the same dynamics in the virtual world. Data from the simulation is collected and is evaluated for inconsistencies against the real world data. This gives an insight into the problem being modelled. The simplest example of a simulation is the Conway's game of life.