Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Collaborative Simulation at Fremont High School in Northern California

Teaching a class is hard work, regardless of whether there are 6 students in the class or 60. As well it should be - one is dealing with brains, the most complex objects in the universe. So to experiment with new tools and techniques in the classroom takes courage and vision. At the same time, without experimentation there would be no innovation. Kudos to Mike Amarillas of Fremont High School for developing an innovative collaborative simulation activity for his 150 students to engage with the concept of elasticity and collisions. See his one page assignment below.


Students used 20 mac computers in groups of 2 or 3 and built total of 80 different models in one day., Many of these models were amazing. It was clear from playing with these models that students were looking at the world through the lens of physics concepts they had learned. Click here to see of those models.

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