MyClass Feature in SimPhysics

Students = Data. Scores = Data.

Taken apart, these are just names and numbers.  Putting these two together is an entirely different matter.

SimInsights have taken their Simulation to another level.  The new feature, MyClass puts students' names and scores together.  It helps both Teachers and students as they use the simulation.  First, the Teacher logs in and creates a "class".  They can simultaneously hold different classes for a single simulation.  They just need to provide different names for each of their classes.  These "class names" are then given to their respective students.  As the Students log in and do the simulations, their scores in each level are logged.  The Teacher can now monitor how each student is doing.  As they see how the students progress in their understanding of the given topic, or the simulation, for that matter, they can zero in on the areas that the students found most difficult to comprehend.  

At the end of the day, both Teachers and Students are beneficiaries of the MyClass feature. 

Together We are Smarter

At SimInsights, we believe in the power of collaborative learning. As an undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), I have experienced the effectiveness of learning through collaboration with others, as well as interaction with the material, firsthand. You see, the Institute operates on an Honor Code, and though each student must complete and hand in his or her own work, we are given virtually infinite freedom to collaborate with other students on most assignments. By feeding off our friends' academic strengths and supporting each other's weaknesses, we create a synergy whereby we gain a much deeper understanding of even the most complex topics than we could ever hope to on our own. We as students quickly realize that, especially in the STEM fields, not only are two heads better than one, but three heads are better than two and so forth. This freedom of collaboration led me to choose Caltech as the starting point of my higher education in the first place. This same spirit of collaboration, that same notion that ideas grow faster and with more potency the more freely they flow between individuals, drove me to pursue an internship at SimInsights. But our organization brings another key mechanism to the table, a tool which will allow the full efficacy of collaborative learning to come to fruition: that of interactive simulation. At Caltech we frequently take advantage of whiteboards strewn across every residence hall in order to represent visually the abstract concepts we strive to grasp, but this often comes up short. Even the most effective whiteboard illustration generated by a student will eventually have to get erased, eliminating the possibility of anyone sampling or otherwise gaining inspiration from that fleeting educational tool en route to producing even more powerful illustrations. And, of course, figures on a whiteboard cannot move. Games and simulations created by SimInsights and those in the SimInsights community take us beyond these frustrating limitations, and we're just getting started. With SimInsights' platform for developing interactive, dynamic, and above all fun and engaging  educational games and simulations, the future of collaborative learning, and indeed knowledge dissemination on the whole, is approaching faster than most can imagine.

These are exciting times.

So come, learn more about what we do here at SimInsights. Let us grow together in knowledge.

- Brian

SimInsights platform extended to 3D

SimInsights platform has been extended to support 3D.



Play with simulation here: http://174.143.169.30/SolarModel/

New teachers from Los Angeles and Mexico added to SimInsights network

SimInsights welcomes three new teachers from Los Angeles, California and Mexico City, Mexico, to its growing network.

Luis Neri

School: Tecnológico de Monterrrey, Mexico City Campus, Mexico

Luis Neri holds a PhD in Physics at the National University of Mexico. He is currently a staff professor of the Physics and Mathematics Department of the Engineering and Architecture School at Tecnológico de Monterrey, in Mexico City Campus, where he teaches Physics and Math for junior undergraduate engineering students. Luis has always loved teaching these sciences and has been committed in helping students to learn them, so he has experimented different learning strategies in his classroom to promote active and enduring learning, as collaborative learning and problem-based learning. He is also convinced that the use of online systems as simulations and virtual laboratories can motivate students and promote students’ self-learning. Luis is member of a research group of professors at Mexico City Campus interested on “e-Learning”. This group is committed to design on line systems to support student learning in Physics, Math and other disciplines.

Rob Daniel

Rob Daniel attended Ohio State University and majored in physics. After graduating he moved to Los Angeles where he attended UCLA and received a masters in education. He has been a high school physics teacher for 4 years and has also taught robotics and biology. He currently work at Animo Pat Brown HS in South Los Angeles. Rob often uses simulations and virtual labs in my classes because they are a great way to engage students and they help students visualize abstract concepts and gain a deeper understanding of the concepts.

Víctor Francisco Robledo Rella

School: Tecnológico de Monterrrey, Mexico City Campus, Mexico

Professor Víctor Robledo-Rella got a Bachelor degree on Physics and a M. in Sc. degree on Astronomy from the Mexican Autonomous National University. He got a Honor recognition for his post-graduate studies. He is full-time professor of the Physics and Math Department, of the Design, Engineering and Architecture School of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus since 2002. Currently, he is the director of the Honors Program of the Design, Engineering and Architecture School. He also coordinates the Introductory Physics courses of the Physics and Math Department, and he is the author of the Applied Physics course approved at institutional level at the Tecnológico de Monterrey. Professor Robledo-Rella is a member of the e-Learning Research Group at the Mexico City Campus, where he participates actively in research projects about the use and development of technology in education, including mobile learning and on-line adaptive systems. He has participated in various national and international conferences, and has 8 publications in astrophysics and more than 18 publications in educational research, mobile learning and intelligent tutoring. He is coauthor of the pre-calculus book: Introduction to Mathematics: Exercises and Problems with Grupo Editorial Patria, and he has reviewed and translated 4 University of Physics books for Grupo Editorial Patria, Pearson and McGraw-Hill. Professor Victor Robledo-Rella has over 16 years teaching physics at the university level and he is certified in the 2010 Teaching-Skills Development Program of the Tecnológico de Monterrey. He gives short workshops for teachers about the didactic use of the Blackboard platform and he has given several science lectures in radio and in several Mexican states. Recently, prof. Robledo-Rella received, along with other members of e-Learning Research Group, the Innovation in Education Award of the V Congress of Educational Innovation hosted at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.

New teachers from Iowa, Boston and LA added to SimInsights network

SimInsights welcomes three new teachers to our growing community!

Leif Nabil Segen

School: South Hamilton High School, Jewell, Iowa

Notables: Phi Beta Kappa member and Summa Cum Laude graduate from Rutgers University (B.S. Physics & Ed.M. Physics Education). Team coach for 2011 first-place winners of Toshiba-NSTA ExploraVision competition.

Leif decided to be an educator during at year off from his undergraduate work. He lived in Saint Kitts and Nevis, West Indies, where his volunteering included curriculum development for Ministry of Education. Inspired by his experiences, he returned to university with the intention to apply his aptitude in math and science in the field of education. He has since taught science and math at the middle school, high school, and university levels. Leif wishes to foster emerging paradigms that will allow education systems to meet their charge: helping children and youth develop their abilities of evaluation and collaborative innovation.

Anna Karelina

School: Occidental College and Glendale Community College, CA

Anna Karelina studied condensed matter physics at Bayreuth University (Germany),earning a PhD degree before turning her attention to education. She worked in PhysicsEducation Research group at Rutgers University conducting action-research projectswith investigative inquiry-based learning. Since then she worked at Glendale CommunityCollege and Occidental College developing and revising inquiry-based instructions.

Allison Daubert

School: Hopewell Valley Central High School, Pennington, NJ

Notables: B.S. Physics and Meteorology, M.Ed. Science Education

Allison is enthusiastic about researching and developing student directed inquiry techniques for learning in her classroom. She is always looking for new ways to integrate technology such as videos, simulations, and data collection software into methods her students can use to actively investigate physics.

SimInsights developing surgical suturing training simulator

SimInsights is developing a surgical suturing training simulator in collaboration with researchers from Texas A&M University and with support from Qatar Foundation. This training simulator will allow medical students to perfect suturing skills using computer simulation. Alternative training approaches involve practicing on cadavers which are not always available and oranges, which are not realistic. The project will use high fidelity simulation techniques, real time computation, 3D computer graphics techniques and interfacing with high sampling rate haptic devices to provide a fully immersive experience to allow students to build dexterous manipulation skills in a safe environment at a very low cost.

SimInsights invited to present at EdMedia conference in Denver

SimInsights Inc has been invited to present a paper at the EdMedia conference organized by Association for Advancement of Computing in Education, in Denver.

SimInsights: Sandbox for Adaptive Collaborative Learning of High Schooland College Introductory Physics Concepts

Zhou Zhou
Teachers College, New York, NY, United States
zz2111@columbia.edu

Michael Town
University Prepatory Academy, Seattle, WA, United States
michael.s.town.atmos@gmail.com

London Jenks
Hot Springs County School District #1, Thermopolis, WY, United States
londonjenks@gmail.com

Rajesh Jha
SimInsights, Inc., Irvine, CA, United States
rkjha1@siminsights.com

Abstract: This paper describes the design, theoretical foundation, and application of SimInsights, a
suite of inquiry-based physics simulations for high school and college students. With SimInsights,
teachers can design collaborative learning activities customized to meet various instructional and
student needs. The learning model integrated into SimInsights is flexibly adaptive and is highly
likely to be effective based on current instructional design theories. Two case studies from high
school classrooms are discussed to showcase how SimInsights can be conveniently embedded in
the instruction to create authentic and motivating learning experiences for students.

SimInsights running on XO by One Laptop Per Child

It was wonderful to see SimInsights running on XO at USC. XO is a laptop built by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization for one purpose - learning. 

 All we needed to do was to update the firefox browser. Kudos to the software team at OLPC to creating an awesome learning product! Now XO users worldwide can learn with collaborative simulations.