Name: Robert Keislar
June 16, 2005
· Review five or more pieces of educational software. You are free to choose any piece of software that is of value either for instructional, administrative, or professional purposes. You must have hands-on experience with the software... watching someone's software review is not sufficient.
· Write a paragraph describing each program and your professional opinion of its usefulness in education.
· At least one of your titles should be freeware or shareware that you have downloaded from the Internet.
· Include a screen capture from the software.
· Choose the best one from among these 5 for the formal software review/presentation.
Title / Review / Screen Capture
1 / Reading Topo-graphical Maps
Gizmo (ExploreLearning.com) / One of the requirements for ICS (ninth grade science) is learning to read topographical maps. I didn’t find this as helpful as I would have liked. The directions for the Gizmo are too high level right from the start for my 9th graders. This may be better suited to a class demo rather than letting the kids lose on computers to play. I liked the assessment questions though. If the kids can get those right, they’ll have learned the basics. Maybe each group can do the assessment together so that they can help each other. I could assign individual practice as homework.
2 / Earth-quake Record-ing Station
Gizmo
(ExploreLearning.com) / I thought this would be useful. The trace and the concentric circles for P and S waves clearly show the timing of the two waves. The assessment questions are also thought-provoking, calling students to reason. I wish that surface waves had also been discussed however. They are the most dangerous kind and show up last.But this Gizmo is excellent for ICS EarthComm.
3 / Solar System Explorer Gizmo (ExploreLearning.com) / So clean! It’s all there! Pluto hasn’t been demoted yet either (which will have to be explained to the students, but at least that shows them that science is fluid, not rigid!) The zoom in and zoom out functions are so small that it may be hard to read them. And it must be zoomed out all the way to get the full solar system on the graph (and see Pluto’s eccentricity) while Zoom-In must be used to see the inner rocky planets. I think individual practice with a worksheet as a class assignment to be finished as homework would be good. The assessment questions are easy except for the eccentricity question. The study guide (Exploration Guide) is well-tuned for a class that has already been introduced to Kepler’s Laws.
4 / Orbit Explorer, Ver 2.0, Ottisoft / I downloaded this to compare it with the ExploreLearning.com Solar System Gizmo discussed above. I actually like this better, although it is much more difficult to operate and lacks the Kepler’s 2nd law equal areas graphic. However, the 3d view is cool, and you can ordit satellites around earth or let rockets take off from earth and wander the solar system etc. In the first frame I have stopped the simulation just as Mercury completes its first orbit and the progress of Venus and Earth are show. In the second frame, I let Mercury go around twice and Venus is almost completing it’s first orbit while Earth and mars have a long way to go.
5 / Physics 101 SE, Ver. 7.0, Praeter Software
(Free-ware, but I had to pay $9.95 to get full program. It’s worth $10, but not much more!) / The software is intended to lift the burden of calculation from the student. It basically just gives the answer. In some cases, graphs are provided, as with the “ProjectileX” screen or “Free Body Diagram” ( a misnomer since the bodies are not shown as free) screens I show here. But often it is just windows with numbers (3rd screen shot of the Magnetic tab). Of the 20 or so tabs displayed in three sets, which span mechanics, atomic theory, thermodynamics, optics, electricity, magnetism, relativity and (inter-)atomic (often called modern physics), the majority are just plug and chug formula with no real enhancement of understanding. It’s like a scientific calculator where the formulas are already entered for the user. However, beyond convenience, I do not feel that real student understanding would be enhanced unless it is used with the instructor. In other words, the student would have to already know enough physics to use the tool. I feel the software is better suited to instructor demos.
6 / Starry Night / Dr Herr showed us this one, but I’ve used it since 2003 when I taught Astronomy at UNR.
(2) Formal Software Review. In this activity you will be reviewing software that you would find useful in your roll as a teacher. Note, this is a review of software, not websites. Websites can be used only if they have a high level of interactivity and animation such as those at ExploreLearning.com. Although we have software on our local servers, much of it is antiquated, and students are best served by downloading freeware and shareware.
· Select one software product for formal review and presentation to the class. Write reviews for each according to the format guidelines provided on the following page. Post you selection.
Title: Physics 101 SE
(1) Description of Program
The program is intended as a do-all be-all for physics students of any level. There are 20 or so ‘tabs’ or major areas of physics, displayed in three sets, which span mechanics, atomic theory, thermodynamics, optics, electricity, magnetism, relativity and (inter-)atomic (often called modern physics). Physics 101 SE advertises itself as a “physics calculator . . . allowing you to focus on physics and not mathematical busywork.” It certainly can be that. But other modules make it valuable as a demo in the classroom and as a learning tool for probably the more advance high school physics students. Features include the Thermodynamics Simulation, which simulate the heat exchange between two bodies, the Orbital Motion Simulator (which can be compared to Orbit Xplorer’s rocket taking off from Earth), the ProjectileX module, and an electromagnetic Spectrum Viewer, among other modules. It has data entry and output fields already set up to solve for an unknown variable in ~150 common physics formulas. It can help students with vectors, even solving for missing vectors without doing the trig. I like ProjectileX’s graph with the ideal and drag trajectories shown on the same graph. (I now appreciate how quickly a drag coefficient of 0.25, about the same as an aerodynamic car, would adversely affect the range of a ballistic-size projectile. It gives me more of an appreciation for the guns on the Big Mo’ or for other long-range artillery.)
The software also performs circuit analysis for voltage, current, power, and resistance, with up to 18 resistors in parallel or series. It does harmonic oscillators, showing the relationships between position, acceleration and the velocity and the superposition waves with the Superposition module. The ‘Free Body Diagrams’ tab is mislabeled or, in my opinion, a misnomer in that common physical situations like inclined planes and Atwood’s Machine are shown, but the student is not guided to isolate the real physical forces operating on one “free” body. It does a good job in showing these physically, but the student would need to be shown these examples ahead of time, and then play with the software.
With the motion Motion Analysis tab, you can enter an object's acceleration, initial velocity and time, to graph position versus time and velocity versus time. ‘Orbit’ includes the eccentricity of an ellipse. Optics allows the student to see how a refracted beam changes by modifying the index of refraction and the incident angle by using moving sliders. There’s also a periodic table that automatically converts grams to moles and vice versa.
Then there are other resources like ‘Lab Report’, a spreadsheet in which the student enters experimental data and it returns averages, standard deviations, percent error; ‘Formula Guides’ that helps student with those common first-year physics equations; an ‘Abbreviation Lookup’ function and a ‘Unit Converter”
(2) Basic Information
I found it on a Freeware/Shareware site, but only the Demo copy was free. The full version cost me $9.95, so it’s not exactly “freeware” in the simplest sense that I understand it. I guess it’s shareware with a modest cost to cover distribution expenses. However, it does a lot for ten bucks. It is offered by Praeter Software and I downloaded Version 7.0 dated 9/15/07.
(3) Target Population
I would say that the software is designed more for teachers with the student target population being more college physics students rather than high school students. Physics instructors and teachers, who already understand the math, may make best use of it as in-class demos, or guided exercises when instructor directions to students are concise and clear and this program is used to check the numerical answers. In fact, I believe this software might best fit into the curriculum as an independent check on homework problems for college and high school students alike. It would probably not hold the interest of the target population as a basic learning tool. It is too short on graphics and reasoning.
(4) Content Goals
The content goals cover most of introductory physics. It is comprehensive for the first year of physics. However, it is not intended as an introduction to the material. Rather, it is intended for practice after the concepts are understood, or, its secondary purpose, as another presentation of the same material which the student (particularly high school students) would already have to have had. I don’t think the software is meant to replace traditional methods, but rather complement them and serve as a numerical tool to check answers, and/or provide additional examples. Even the ‘Formula Guide’ has a helpful examples of trajectory motion and a pulley and inclined plane supporting two masses.
(5) Process Goals
The process goals are less well defined. I think the writers of the program may have missed their mark, if they advertise this product as an introductory learning tool. It is ironic to me that the program supposedly ‘takes the math out of physics,’ but requires numerical input and then interpretation of the numerical output. The process goals of student learning are better served in those tabs and modules where graphical output is provided, like projectile motion in ‘ProjectileX’.
(6) Lesson Plan
There are several aspects of the program that can be incorporated into a lesson plan. The following three specific tasks are suitable for a one hour period, with some instructor input, and some follow-up work at home.
1. The Montana-class battleship, the Missouri (upon whose decks the Japanese surrender was officially signed on September 13, 1945) had 16-inch (406 mm) bore guns. They fired projectiles weighing from 1,900 to 2,700 pounds (850 to 1,200 kg) at a maximum speed of 2,690 feet per second (820 m/s) with a range of up to 24 nautical miles (39 km). At maximum range the projectile would have spent almost 1½ minutes in flight. Use the ‘ProjectileX’ module and your knowledge of ballistic motion in the Physics 101 SE software to find a) the drag coefficient of the 16” shell, and b) The ideal range for the same shell if there were no air resistance. Compare the two answers and comment on what a “drag” air resistance really is, even for a modern aerodynamic car (with a drag coefficient of 0.23). Using the cubic relationship between drag force and velocity we discussed in class, why did the United States mandate a 55 mph maximum on US Freeways in the 1970s? Compare the drag force at 55 mph and 85 mph.
2. A student has a 6V battery and keeps adding 6Ω resistors in parallel across the battery. Find the general relationship for n 6Ω resistors across this battery. Use the Electricity tab in Physics 101 SE and check your results for n=1, 6, 12, and 18 resistors. Does your general relationship satisfy these specific n’s?
3. Use the ‘Free Body Diagram’ simulator in Physics 101 SE to find the maximum coefficient of friction a 30o inclined plane must have to stop a 4-kg hanging mass from pulling a 5-kg mass up the inclined plane. Check your answer with algebra.
(7) Summary
Physics 101 SE has a broad scope, perhaps too broad for a student to learn a particular topic, but I, as a former physics professor, actually like it. It’s a good review if nothing else, and playing with the entry numbers and watching the output numbers helped me re-appreciate several aspects of physics, e.g., the impact of relativity as one approaches the speed of light, etc. I recommend this for the teachers more than for the students, but, with appropriate teacher selection, some tabs and modules can serve the students as educational software should.
(3) Formal Presentation of Software: One or two sessions will be scheduled for formal software review. During these sessions you will present your software in small groups or to the class using network sharing software such as Apple Remote Desktop. Once you have decided on software to review, post your decision on the newsgroup as specified in class or on the web-page. first-come, first-served.· Make a presentation of your software using the following guidelines Each presentation must be limited to 15 minutes.
· Your presentations should stress how this software can be used effectively in the curriculum.
· Do not spend time discussing mechanics (menu structure, etc.) nor shortcomings
· Illustrate how the software can be used to enhance instruction.
· Provide your peers with a "hands-on experiences" lesson if at all possible.
Sorry, I missed these sessions.
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