SimInsights

SimInsights nominated for 100kin10.org

2011-11-29T14:35:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago, SimInsights was nominated as a potential 100kin10 partner. This is a national effort to galvanize 80+ organizations in the private and public sectors for one purpose: to attract and retain 100,000 STEM teachers over the next 10 years. We're proud to have been nominated by Donorschoose.org!

Why are we so excited?

This nomination reflects the focus of our company. We see teaching as a challenging, worthwhile endeavor. Great teachers give students the ability to explore while channeling their focus and energy, they create pathways for learning and make critical instructional choices that no computer program could ever fully replicate. Over the past year or so, we've realized that our platform is only great when its in the hands of a great teacher.

We've made some attempts to unearth some of these great teachers and see how they re-imagine the simulation-centric classroom. The past few weeks have been nothing short of astonishing. Take a look at the profiles and work of teachers who recently used our software to have their students do some incredible work.

But back to SimInsights and 100kin10.

How do we think we can help motivate the best teachers to remain in the classroom?

1. By making them content authors/app developers: Now when a teacher has a cool idea for a simulation based lesson or inquiry, they can find it in our repository or build it by themselves in a few minutes, instead of working for hours trying to pigeonhole existing resources to fit their student needs. We hope to crowdsource the efforts of thousands of teachers, creating the world's number 1 database of 100% INTERACTIVE science and math problems, activities and assessments. Goodbye, boring textbooks. Hello, learning through exploration.

2. By increasing their impact: You know how every school has that great teacher whose class everyone wants to be in? Now more students can have access to content developed by those teachers through our repository. We hope that when these great teachers see how many people respect and use their work, they will be more motivated to keep producing it. Also, we just might be able to figure out some creative ways to reward these teachers, like providing them gift cards on Donorschoose.org, or paying for them to get some awesome professional development to that they can build even more cool lessons... If you have ideas, drop us a line at info@siminsights.com

3. By creating an intellectual community: Now instead of plowing a lonely furrow in their STEM classroom, every new teacher has an online network that will provide them with resources and critical feedback as they learn the ropes. Our community consists of engineers, scientists, educators and students, who can all work together to help teachers test and refine their cool ideas. We need to show them that they are needed and that we appreciate them!

SimInsights software helps engineering students learn system dynamics

2011-10-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

Over 50 mechanical engineering undergraduate students at University of Michigan - Jiao Tong University (UM-SJTU) Joint Institute in Shanghai used SimInsights as part of junior level system dynamics course. Students completed homework assignments that required them to build computer models of mechanical and electrical systems and simulate them to study their responses by viewing the animations and charts. In some cases, students were asked to compare the simulation results with their hand calculated analytical solutions.

Students found SimInsights to be a valuable complement to other learning resources such as textbooks, calculators and other software applications. According to Professor Robert Parker, the instructor for the course:

"SimInsights software engages students in a different way than lecturing and textbooks can, and it triggers students' imagination and creativity in analyzing engineering systems. Students respond to SimInsights problems with enthusiasm. They appreciate the more dynamic interaction as a supplement to traditional textbook problem solving."

Professor Parker is Distinguished Professor Chair and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute.

Lesson Design Contest for Teachers

2011-09-26T02:55:00.001-07:00

We are working on an initiative that would enable the most creative, passionate science teachers to reach the greatest number of students with web-based lessons.

We want to run a competition for science teachers to create an engaging, interactive simulation based module to teach students a challenging concept in mechanics or electricity.

Your reward: we'll pay for your students to have snazzy new lab equipment, go on an awesome field trip, or you to get the awesome professional development workshop you've always wanted.

The catch: you need to use our platform www.siminsights.com to design and teach your lesson. Sure, we know it's basic and has stuff we could improve. We love feedback! In the meantime, start figuring out how you might use our tools to create that winning lesson.

We'll have more info for you in the coming weeks. If you have thoughts on prizes that you would like, companies you want to sponsor those prizes or know people who might have info on sponsoring a prize, hit me up! I'm working on finding some awesome sponsors for this contest! Let's recognize, reward and retain our best science teachers!

SimInsights integrated with Facebook

2011-09-10T23:33:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce the integration of Facebook with SimInsights. Please see attached a few slides for how it works.

Facebook integration will add names, faces and a lot of warmth to our site which will help build a community. It should lead to new connections being formed among users, more lively interactions and richer discussions.

Please take a minute to log in to www.siminsights.com using your facebook account. You can also login using your google or yahoo accounts. Just click on "My Sims" link on the top gray bar, select "Settings" menu item and link to your facebook accounts at the bottom of the page.

We look forward to seeing your pictures on your portfolios!

New design for SimInsights website

2011-09-06T23:07:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the new design of our website? What did you think?

The new design puts user created simulations front and center on the home page. The moment you land on our site, you are invited to run a simulation, generate charts, look at the numbers update, change simulation settings and re-run. You can then choose from several recent models created by our community. Scroll down to see the latest news through twitter feeds. And finally, a scrolling stream of our user quotes tells you why our users love us.

I feel that having simulations on the home page celebrates the creativity of our community. It also highlights the uniqueness of our platform as the first site that adds simulation to the various forms of expressions available on the web such as text, image, audio and video.But perhaps most importantly, it takes the fear out of simulation.

Having spent nearly 10 years in the engineering simulation industry, I know that poor usability has made a lot of grown-up people dread simulations. If the adults are so fearful, what chance do students have with this technology?

Well, our goal is to simplify simulation and harness its power to serve the user rather than terrify him. Our mission is to make our simulation tools so simple that anyone- no matter what the age, gender of education level- can have his or her first simulation running in less than a minute after landing on our site.

We are just getting started. So let us know what you think about whether we are off to a good start and how we can do a better job. Thanks for reading.

Simulation as form of expression

2011-08-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

The internet provides unlimited opportunities for expression. At SimInsights, we are adding a new medium for expression: simulations.Simulations represent a very powerful amplifier for human understanding, cognition and thought. Just look at the multi-billion dollar simulation software and services industry to get a feel for the impact simulation technology has on our world. Boeing, Toyota, Porsche and practically every company making products and delivering services is leveraging simulations to cut costs and accelerate innovation.However, simulation software available today are very complex. It is a bit like computers in early days- you had to be a scientist to do anything with them. At SimInsights, we look at this as an interesting design and engineering problem to be solved. How can simulation be made so easy and intuitive so that middle school students can have fun doing it?Once it is easy and fun to do simulations, more and more people can begin to use them to amplify their understanding of the world and gain access to greater opportunities. And perhaps simulations can take their place next to other expression forms such as text, images, audio and video.

Performance Assessments: More Building, Less Bubbling

2011-08-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, I've been stewing a little on the value that we can add to school districts in this current educational climate. Over the past 10 years or so, there has (rightly) begun to be an intense focus on gathering data on what students really know and where their gaps in comprehension may lie. Our current system of formative and summative assessment is heavily based on periodic benchmark tests and annual, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhigh-stakes exams. In the end, it sadly becomes about students filling in the correct bubbles and using test taking strategies like elimination to help them figure out the answers that they know must lie somewhere between the letters A and E on the page. Useful, because they will have to take standardized tests for the rest of their lives. But not so useful when it comes thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifo assessing how well they might perform when they are asked to build and test a robot or a simple radio in an engineering class. Especially thinking about kids in our underserved neighborhoods, it seems crazy to expect them to make the transition from bubbling to building in a few months between high school and college. Enter SimInsights and the creation of computer based performance assessments.

Here's the lowdown on performance assessment. Basically it's a far superior form of understanding where a learner is in their development, but until now, it's taken a lot of work on the creation and the actual evaluation side to make it something that can be done on a large scale. And speaking of scale, the SCALE group at Stanford School of Education has done some great work in documenting pilot studies of performance assessment. Instead of bubbling in answers, we can actually have students placed in a virtual environment where they have to demonstrate their proficiency with a topic by building a model or testing a hypothesis by creating an experiment and executing it. This type of system could really add value to a student's learning, and at the same time, provide bucketloads of useful data about what that student can actually DO with the information they have learned. Because we want to move towards a system with more building than bubbling.

Siminsights: Access to Physics

2011-08-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

When Rajesh first told me about Siminsights, he used words like collaborative simulation, high quality tools, online education, cognitive mentorship, peer based learning, and the like. But I strongly believe that at the end of the day, Siminsights is really about one thing: Access.

To explain what I mean, I'd like to reference my own thought process when I decided to enter the world of education in lieu of a career in finance or consulting. It was a bold move, driven by my heart rather than my head, but I still had a choice to make: was I going to apply for jobs as a Physics teacher or a Math teacher? I picked Math simply because I knew that students have to take three years of math to graduate high school in California, compared to zero years of Physics. This translates to fewer jobs in Physics education, so although I picked up a credential in Physics in addition to the one I had in math, I was marketing myself mainly as a math teacher. Funnily enough, I was hired to teach math and pioneer a physics program at a charter school in LA, but when the recession hit, the budget for the physics lab was the first thing to be struck off the school's to do list. I ended up teaching no Physics that year or the next.

In that microcosmic situation you have the answer to why most kids in public school have no chance of entering careers in engineering or applied physics. More than 60% of high school students in the US have not taken any physics prior to graduating*. When they enter college, and have to compete with students who have had physics, they can quickly become demotivated because they feel that they have too much ground to make up. The gap seems even wider when you compare these students to those from Asian countries, who take 3-5 years of physics before entering college. I wish it were true that one could make up for that lost ground in college, but the truth is, it happens too rarely. So the problem of physics access is directly related to the problem of young people entering STEM fields, which is really important when you consider the need for qualified STEM graduates to be working on problems in alternative energy, information technology and even poverty reduction.

So that's why I believe that a tool like Siminsights is important. It provides Access to a kid who wouldn't otherwise have it. A kid whose parents can't afford to send her to a private school so she can get the preparation she needs to be an engineer. It's like giving that kid access to a textbook, a lab and a community of physics teachers and professionals in one fell swoop. It narrows the resource gap by making powerful quantitative simulation tools available to people for free. Instead of waiting until college to expose kids to quantitative tools like Matlab, Maple and Mathematica, by which point most of them have lost the will to take math and science, Siminsights provides a fun community-based on ramp to simulation based learning. Instead of costing school districts thousands of dollars in textbook fees, it makes physics education open source. Because all (not just some) of us have a right to learn. And we need to encourage as many people to learn about physics as we can possibly manage. Our society depends on it.

*http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/highlite/hs2/hshigh.pdf

Collaborative circuit simulation in the browser

2011-08-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

We have redesigned SimOhm, our web-based collaborative circuit simulation tool. Feel free to build you own circuit below. Don't worry, go ahead.

THE PHYSICS OF A TRAMPOLINE ARTIST

2011-07-26T00:33:00.000-07:00

The following simulation was developed by Professor Arun Srinivasa of Texas A&M University.

See below the simulation is of a tampoline artist suspended in the air. The purple arrow is the force of gravity on the man. when you press the run button(The blue triangle on the right hand side of the simulation), he will fall down and begin bouncing from the hard floor.

BEFORE YOU PRESS THE RUN BUTTON

Answer the following question

Q1: Notice that the man starts out at a height of 6 units from the ground. Do you think that when he bounces, he will

(a) go higher than 6 units?

(b) lower than 6 units?

Q2: Which way will his velocity point when he is falling? up or down?

Q3: Which way will his velocity point when he is bouncing up?

Q4: What about his acceleration vector?

NOW RUN THE SIMULATION (pausing or rerunning) :

Watch his velocity vector (green arrow) and acceleration vectors ( black arrow)

Q5: Did he do what you expected? what did you not anticipate?

Q6: Does he bounce back to the same height every time?

Q7: Give a physical rationalization as to why he doesnt bounce back every time.

Q8: What is the correlation between how fast he tumbles and how high he jumps

Q9: Now give a better answer than Q4 (hint : consider the total energy)

Q10: Why does this man not jump higher that his initial height? how is that possible for a human to jump higher and higher each time? (hint: can this trampoline man do work?)

A simulation built for a Physics textbook problem

2011-07-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

Basic motion concepts can be difficult to understand for some students. Following is a video from People's Physics Book by James Dann:

Here is a simulation we made, in just a few minutes, to simulate this scenario:

The simulation allows students to engage with the concepts in a hands on manner. They can click the "Charts" button at the bottom left to see how the velocity, acceleration and other variables change with time. Students can also see the numbers updating as the simulation progresses. First click on the arrow icon at the top and select one of the cars. Then click on the "Data" button at the bottom left. Finally, the "Settings" button allows control of which signals are charted, copy/paste access to chart data and even comparison with analytical expressions to check the accuracy of simulation results.

Its important to note that creating and publishing this simulation to this blog took only a couple of minutes. It was done in the web-browser without any software download or installation. Just login to www.siminsights.com and start creating and sharing your simulations.

Empowering STEM teachers with embeddable web-simulation authoring

2011-07-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

As a physics or engineering teacher at high school or college level, do you have ideas for how to engage students through interesting simulations? Do you find that available simulations do not effectively meet the needs of your students? Do you wish you could whip-up a few simulations quickly to address just the specific needs of your students?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above then take a look at SimInsights apps. In less than a minute, you will have your first simulation running, without writing any code, and without installing any software. You will then be able to customize how students interact with your simulation and finally publish to the web. And thats not all. Your simulations will work with touch input on ipad, can be embedded in other pages such as blogs, online quizzes, wiki pages and even e-books.

By empowering teachers to easily and flexibly create and publish simulation based learning content, we are making STEM learning more meaningful and fun. In the coming weeks, you will see announcements about a few pioneering teachers publishing interesting simulation based learning content. We look forward to your comments.

A new streamlined embeddable simulator

2011-07-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Today we are releasing a new streamlined design for our embeddable simulator (player).

Click the play button at the top to start the simulation. Then try out the Chart and Settings buttons at the bottom.

Just like embeddable video and slideshow players, the web needs embeddable simulators that facilitate meaningful discussions and stimulate thought. SimInsights is filling this void by providing simulators for mechanical systems and electrical circuits. Here is how it works. You log in to www.siminsights.com, free of charge, to build your simulation and then make it public. You can then copy the embed code and paste into blogs, wiki pages, online quizzes, e-books and other places.

Here are three examples of how the embeddable simulator can be used:

Blogs: As part of a blog post (see above), simulations can promote deeper discussions about physics and engineering.
E-books: Embedded in e-books such as flexbooks by CK12, they can help students learn concepts through hands-on interaction.
Assessments: When embedded in online quizzes, the simulations can assess student understanding in rich ways that go well beyond multiple choice questions.

Whether your audience is using smartphones or iPad or PC or Mac, the SimInsights embeddable simulator makes your simulations universally accessible, so that the maximum number of people worldwide can benefit from it. Log in to siminsights.com and try it out.

A simulation for motion concepts

2011-07-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

Following is a simulation for problem #5 in CK12 People's Physics Book by James H. Dann. It is an essential problem, with the graphs of the motion (both v vs. t and x vs. t) being especially hard for the students.

Click the strobe icon (one that looks like an orange movie camera) and select one of the cars to see snapshots through time.

SimInsights adds touch input to web-based collaborative simulations

2011-07-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Now you can build SimMotion models on the iPad using touch! Just touch the screen to create a particle, or drag your finger to define a rectangular body. To connect bodies with springs, dampers etc., simply touch a particle and drag your finger to the next particle. Simulations have never been so easy and fun. We hope you will enjoy the addition of touch input to web-based collaborative simulations. Let us know what you think.

Matthew Peterson on interactive software designed for math learning

2011-07-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Excellent talk by Matt Peterson, founder of Mind Research, on how current teaching is flawed in its extreme emphasis on the use of words when clearly words do not work for most students.

Matt says: "...instead of just throwing a bunch of words at students, we create rich opportunities for them to create their own dots in their own heads, about how math works. And when students play an active role in figuring out how math works, they want to talk about it. It sparks mathematical talk. In this way, a language free approach can improve language skills."

2011-07-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

Have you heard about Gooru? Gooru is a platform for social learning, created by EdNovo.org. Gooru does an amazing job of allowing teachers to create ClassPlans - a wonderfully usable aggregation of various learning resources including textbooks from CK12 and other sources, videos, games and simulations. Gooru heavily uses all Google technologies including search, chat, voice and video calling, etc. Gooru is by far the best designed content aggregation platform that I have seen. Its current focus is k-12 and it is accessible to teachers by invitation only.

Kudos to the EdNovo team for realizing this tranformative platform, and all the best for future success!

Collaborative tinkering

2011-06-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

Meriam-Webster defines tinkering as:
"to repair, adjust, or work with something in an unskilled or experimental manner"

Its what one of my younger brothers did during high school on the long summer afternoons when the rest of us took a nap. He pulled out all the broken old things like radios, etc and took them apart and tried to put them back together.

SimInsights is making simulation tools that enable virtual tinkering in collaboration with your friends. You can tinker with a model of a machine or circuit, then send a link to your friend so he or she can tinker with it. With tinkering comes experience which eventually helps build intuition and insights. Those insights differentiate a great scientist or engineer from a good one. Companies all around the world are tinkering with simulation tools to design better products in less time and with less money. Why shouldn't young people do the same?

Collaborative simulations in the browser: No installs, no plugins.

2011-06-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired by a conversation I just had with an applicant. Even after visiting SimInsights website, he asked me if there really was no download-install required for using SimInsights software. Its striking how people are resigned to having to go through cumbersome processes to run a simulation.

Although web based simulations have been possible for many years, they have used flash or java plugins which have many issues. Most commonly, however, simulations have been done on the expensive desktops, using software products that can cost as much as $100,000 per user. This is rapidly changing, thanks to several technological advances. It is now possible to run very interesting simulations on your iphone, ipad, pc, mac or any other machine, by just logging into your SimInsights account. Visit www.siminsights.com to experience this flexibility. Just login using your gmail or yahoo account and get started building and sharing your simulations of electrical and mechanical simulations.

Designing group work: Strategies for the heterogeneous classroom

2011-06-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ajoy Vase, math teacher at Ouchi High School in Los Angeles, California, and graduate of Stanford STEP program for suggesting this wonderful book by Professor Elizabeth Cohen: Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the heterogeneous classroom.

The book is full of insights from social science research that inform the design of collaborative learning activities. One of the best blueprints for collaborative learning task design that I know of. Please share other books on the topic that you like.

There are many many insightful sentences that I want to share from this book. Here is one:

"The major advantage of combining a manipulative task with a group setting is that Geraldo has a number of helpful resources, including concrete materials to represent abstract ideas and other people engaged in the same task." (page 8)

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in collaborative learning.

Excellent collection of simulations for teaching dynamics and controls

2011-06-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Dr. Shivakumar I. Ranganathan of American University of Sharjah for pointing me to an excellent collection of java simulations for teaching dynamics and controls. See below a screenshot for a double pendulum simulation:

Click here for other models. You will need to install the Java plugin.

Rich assessments using simulations

2011-06-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Would it be useful to include an interactive simulation as part of an assessment of force and motion concepts?

Before you answer this question, take this survey and experience the difference. Here is a screenshot showing one of the questions:

Just in case any of the models looks empty, please move the mouse pointer inside the window to refresh. Note that if you are using a mac, you will only be able to see the first model and not the remaining two because of a known issue on mac for models with images.

Now you can see charts with your embedded simulations

2011-05-31T01:15:00.000-07:00

We added charts in embedded simulations as shown below.

1. Select the Show Chart checkbox
2. Mouse over the Chart legend: text to get a drop down showing different signal options
3. Select the signals you want charted

A chart window will appear below the simulation.

Collaborative Simulations: Combining Science and Social Networking

2011-05-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Proud of the team of students at Heritage High School in Virginia, Ouchi High School in Los Angeles and Colts Neck High School in New Jersey who took on a biomechanics research problem and worked on using online collaboration tools. The biology team, led by Amol Patel, prepared the following presentation on muscle mechanics:

SimInsights Biology Team Presentation

The math team, led by Ajoy Vase, prepared the following video describing the math behind long jump:

The physics team, led by Joseph Santonacita, created the following four videos describing the force and motion concepts to their math and biology counterparts:

This multidisciplinary collaborative simulation project was conducted according to the Project Based Learning (PBL) framework. The teams used Google docs for collaborative document creation, Skype for teleconferencing and SimInsights for collaborative simulation, among others. The slides used for presentation at National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference in March 2011 in San Francisco are available here.

Angry birds simulation

2011-05-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

It took less than a minute to make the following simulation resembling the Angry Bird game.

Give it a moment to load and then just move your mouse within the simulation window to refresh the model.

Try turning on the velocity, acceleration and force vectors. Such visualizations can help kids appreciate abstract concepts.

Nobel prize winning Physicist says "Lectures have been equally ineffective for centuries"

2011-05-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

A study conducted by Physics nobelist Carl Weiman has found that clicker style teaching is more effective than traditional lecture style teaching. Here is an excerpt:

"The classes' test scores were nearly identical before the interactive sessions, but there was an obvious difference after the students took a 12-question quiz on what they were taught during the experimental week of instruction. Students in the interactive class got an average of 74 percent of the questions right, while those taught using traditional method scored only 41 percent."

Make your simulations come alive with images

2011-05-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

You can now attach images to the bodies in your SimMotion2D model, making them come alive with meaning so that viewers can immediately understand what they represent. It can take a few moments to load, so please be patient, and remember to move your mouse within the window. The model below shows a shuttle, a tank and a car moving with constant speed. Gravity is turned off.

SimInsights receives a STEM grant from Orange County Engineering Council

2011-04-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

Irvine, CA, March 24th, 2011- Orange County Engineering Council http://www.ocec.org/home/index.htm has awarded SimInsights grant funds to conduct a simulation contest for Orange County high school students over the next 2-3 months.

The OCEC grant of $500 will be used to conduct a modeling and simulation contest for high school students. The grant money will be spent on prizes, promotion and training for students. The contest will challenge students to build simulations used to teach physics and engineering concepts to their fellow students.

“Today simulation based jobs are among the highest paid and highest status careers in practically every industry. By working with SimInsights simulation software, high school students will have an opportunity to work and think like professionals and gain valuable skills for college and career readiness”, said Rajesh Jha, SimInsights Founder.

SimInsights offers a broad selection of educational simulation software and games designed to enhance the learning experience and offer the students an interactive and collaborative learning environment.

SimNewton, SimOhm, SimMotion2D and Physics to the Rescue are but a few of the growing number of tools available on SimInsights website (www.siminsights.com). These tools provide hands on physics experience to students, while allowing the teachers to create more challenging and compelling problems that stimulate the classroom and entice the students to experiment and learn more by doing.

According to Mr. Rich Gallaher, Orange County Engineering Council’s Vice President of Education: “SimInsights is a promising technology which we would like young students to be involved with for its value. The SimInsights software allows students to visualize and model engineering in real life. This is an opportunity which the students before them have not had”.

About SimInsights

SimInsights’ mission is to produce collaborative simulation software and games that engage students worldwide and help develop genuine understanding of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts.

SimInsights is a California company founded based on nearly a decade of experience in producing simulation software for professional engineers and scientists at Fortune 500 companies including Boeing, Toyota and Porsche.

About Orange County  Engineering Council

Orange County  Engineering Council’s goal is to enhance the public image of engineers and scientists and promote the interaction of professional societies and engineering/scientific corporations and universities in Orange County California. OCEC's continued success is dependent on the financial support and active involvement of our member societies and corporate sponsors. If you are not already a sponsor or active member of OCEC, please contact us to learn more. OCEC is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization

For more information, contact:

SimInsights
siminsights@gmail.com
714 651 4104

Orange County  Engineering Council
Vice President Education
Rich Gallaher, SMIEEE
Huntington Beach, CA
Phone: (714) 261-1419
Email:Richard.M.Gallaher@boeing.com

A better faster way to embed your simulations

2011-04-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

The simulation below shows the dynamics of balls and blocks. The sim was created using SimMotion2D in less than 1 minute. SimMotion2D is the latest addition to the suite of collaborative simulation software from SimInsights.

This sim was embedded in this blog using the embed tag provided by SimMotion2D, much like YouTube and other web 2.0 sites.

What if we teach engineering before reading?

2011-03-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

My first interaction with Chris Rogers was at Florida State University in fall, 1997 where he gave a lecture quite similar to the one in the following video:

After the lecture, my advisor at the time, a control theory researcher, was so excited he came to our lab and asked if he should go ahead and buy a lego kit for us to do controls experiments with.

In the video, Chris wonders why its important to us that every kid knows how to read Harry Potter before age 8 but not understand how a car works? He argues that as kids go through adolescence, their curiosity shifts from the physical to the social. So first 3-4 years of education must focus on engineering before the social aspects grab kids' attention.

The intructional power of games, social networking and simulations

2011-03-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, Jennifer Groff and Jason Haas write in their whitepaper:

"Games, simulations, and social networking are already permeating the workplace as productivity and development tools—we may be doing our students a large disservice by not integrating these tools into their education."

They provide numerous examples of teachers who had integrated games, simulations and social networking tools in their classes.

Nine free iphone apps for interactive physics

2011-03-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

Angela M. Kelly of Lehman College (CUNY, Bronx, NY) writes in an article in The Physics Teacher:

"In a conceptual physics class designed for ninth-graders, Icreated a structured activity where students applied Newton's laws toa series of free applications downloaded on iPod Touches. Thelaws had been introduced during the prior class session withtextual descriptions and graphical representations. The course is offered aspart of the Enlace Latino Collegiate Society, a weekend enrichmentprogram for middle and high school students in the Bronx.The majority of students had limited or no prior exposureto physics concepts, and many attended high schools where physicswas not offered at all. "

Following the table of nine free iphone apps from the article:

SimInsights software demo at Cyberlearning Tools for STEM Education Conference in Berkeley

2011-03-20T23:14:00.000-07:00

SimInsights software was demonstrated at the Cyberlearning Tools for STEM Education (CyTSE) Conference in Berkeley. The conference was organized by National Science Foundation and brought together leading researchers in learning sciences, education technology and related fields.

All the keynotes were deeply insightful.On Wednesday morning, Dan Schwartz of Stanford University and Margaret Hilton presented the highlights of the latest NRC report which recognizes the tremendous potential of simulations and games. In the afternoon, Allan Collins of Northwestern University and Richard Halverson of University of Wisconsin presented excellent overviews of the revolution that is sweeping the field of education.

Collaborative simulation based multidisciplinary study by three high school student teams in CA, VA and NJ

2011-03-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

We presented the results of a web-based collaborative modeling and simulation project at the National Science Teachers’ Association (NSTA) 2011 conference. The team consisted of following three teachers and their students.

Joseph Santonacita, Physics teacher at Colts Neck High School in New Jersey
Ajoy Vase, Math teacher at Ouchi High School in Los Angeles, CA
Amol Patel, Biology teacher at Heritage High School in Virginia.
Rajesh Jha, SimInsights, Irvine, CA

Collaboration, interdisciplinary systems thinking and communication are among the most sought after skills of the 21^st century. The objective of this project was to allow high school students to experience the challenges and opportunities in developing these vital skills.

We used a project-based learning (PBL) (bie.org) framework to guide the three student teams to answer the following driving question: How can physics, biology and math illuminate the motion of a pitcher throwing a ball? To answer this question, students worked together to understand muscle mechanics through a collaborative interdisciplinary approach combining ideas from physics, math and biology. The first phase of the project was completed and presented at NSTA. The second phase is ongoing. Following is the screenshot of our presentation annoucement at the nsta.org site:

The presentation slides are available here.

SimInsights receives grant from Orange County Engineering Council

2011-03-18T00:26:00.000-07:00

Orange County Engineering Council (ocec.org) has awarded a small grant to SimInsights. The funds will be used to conduct a simulation contest for Orange County high school students over the next couple of months. This is an exciting opportunity to generate awareness about the power of collaborative simulations for deep STEM learning.

Cool video from GE showing interesting collisions of everyday objects

2011-03-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

Take a look at this cool video from GE:

Its fun to observe the various collisions in this artistically filmed videos while enjoying the pleasant music. For that pleasure, I am willing to overlook the error of selecting Newton as unit for energy. I hope that this cool video will stimulate thought about the nature of collisions of everyday objects. As you can see, some of the objects are highly deformable and show wave-propagation in a very compelling way. Modeling these waves is a very challenging problem. However, modeling the overall motion and energy loss is very straightforward with simulation capabilities in SimInsights software such as SimNewton and SimMotion. A lot can be learned by building such models.

Systems 2020 Initiative

2011-02-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

On June 1, 2010, Office of the Director, Defense Research and Engineering, and released the "Systems 2020 - Strategic Initiative Overview Briefing" which describes the need for new engineering tools and approaches to develop defense related systems. A key challenge will be the speed at which new systems will need to be developed. To respond this and other challenges, the briefing cites four big ideas, the first of which is Model Based Engineering (MBD) shown in the slide below:

It takes time to learn to work with sophisticated tools such as simulation software, and traditional teaching methods are not sufficient. What are we doing to help high school students develop the skills required to work with modeling and simulation software?

New game on electrostatic force added to "Physics to the Rescue"

2011-02-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

"Physics to the Rescue" now has a new game called Charge. From the Game page on SimInsights website:

"Tommy can survive only if he stays on the board and does not fall into the icy cold water. He needs you to balance the board by manipulating the magnitude and position of the electrical charge at the bottom right."

Following is a video showing a few seconds of gameplay.

Like other games in "Physics to the Rescue", Charge is designed to engage students with concepts of electrostatic attraction before a lecture covering Coulomb's law. Teachers may assign the game as homework to be completed before the lecture. Students come to the SimInsights site and play the game. At the end of the lecture, teachers would typically debrief the game, allowing students to share their experiences, aha moments, frustrations etc. Finally, teachers connect the game play experience with other instances of electrostatic attraction.

21st Century Learning and Project Based Learning

2011-02-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

Ken Kay, past President of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, has been elected to the board of Buck Institute for Education. Ken has a very interesting blog post about 21st century education and Project Based Learning. He summarizes his perspectives succinctly as follows:

"21st century education and the 4Cs [critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity] are the most powerful ways to move a dialogue forward to create a consensus vision around the future of education in your school or district.
PBL is one of the most effective strategies we have today that can actually help us teach and assess the 4Cs in today’s classrooms."

At SimInsights, we are developing collaborative simulation software that support exciting real world projects. See a simulation-based bridge design project done at Pomona College, for example. Though this project took several weeks of work by a five high school seniors who met for four hours a week, not all projects need to be this long. In contrast, Mike Amarillas at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, CA has had his students complete an open-ended collaborative assignment on collisions within just one hour.

We have been a long admirers of work done by Buck Institute and support its efforts to bring about meaningful change to education worldwide and are thankful to Buck Institute for helping spread the word about us.

A fun and insightful collection of simulation based assessments

2011-02-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

We just created some simulation based assessments for force. You can check them out here. Creating these questions is a simple three step process:

1. Think of a simulation based question

2. Make the simulation and make it public

3. Either on SimInsights wiki page (or your own website), type the question and embed the model

Thats it. Wouldn't it would be great have a collection of fun and insightful simulation based assessments to supplement textbooks?

Simulation based design of bridges

2011-01-31T18:13:00.000-08:00

Bridges are an excellent example of real world structures that can be used to introduce students to many important STEM concepts. A free desktop software called West Point Bridge Designer is available from the U.S. Military Academy. The software installed without problems and I was up and running in just a few minutes (see screenshot below).

Graphics are great, as is the coverage of all the different aspects of a real world bridge design project, ranging from engineering to economics. Great for kids at any level.

Social aspects of learning important for success of students at risk

2011-01-29T22:51:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading an article by Suzanne Brahmia et al at Rutgers on the importance of social aspects of learning to foster success of students at risk. The paper notes a rise in the number of non-traditional students taking physics (females, students from ethnic backgrounds) and identifies common features for at-risk students: low confidence level, lack of community, weak academic preparation and unrealistic expectations. The paper presents a multi-faceted program that supplements lectures, recitations, experiments with group work and reports a significant reduction in drop-out rate. Could free web-based collaborative simulation tools from SimInsights provide yet another medium to bolster the social aspects of learning for at-risk students?

Web based screen video capture

2011-01-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

http://screenr.com/ is a useful web-based screen video capture tool that allows instant posting to YouTube. I plan on using this to demonstrate SimInsights simulations. Watch for screenr videos on this blog and on our YouTube channel.

Following site has more details of other similar apps:
http://linuxandfriends.com/2009/09/03/free-screen-video-capture-web-based-solutions/

A private simulation repository for your physics class

2011-01-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

SimInsights provides a functionality that many teachers will find very useful: You can create a private repository for the students of your class. Only those who have the "class-codes" (defined below) will be able to access this repository. Here is how it works:

Teacher emails siminsights@gmail.com to request a class code
SimInsights emails a class code to the requesting teacher
Teacher emails code to all students in class
Upon receiving class code from teacher, student 1 adds the class code to access the repository
Student 1 builds a model and publishes it to the class repository using the class code
Other students begin to comment on student 1's model
This happens for all students in the class, due to which the class repository starts filling up with models and comments on them
After the due date, teacher begins review of the completed assignments and comments using the 'summary view'

This process was used for the assignment at Fremont High School. The private repository provides a safe-place for the entire class to engage in collaborative simulation based learning. Collaboration allows each student to experience multiple perspectives which helps build meta-cognitive skills. Meta-cognitive skills in turn help develop adaptive-expertise, which is vital for success in a fast changing world.

"Physics to the Rescue" presented at American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Winter Conference 2011

2011-01-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

A study on the effectiveness of "Physics to the Rescue" guided-inquiry mini-games was presented in a poster session at the AAPT Winter Conference 2011 in Jacksonville, Florida by Anna Karelina. See poster below.

The study was conducted at Glendale Community College and found that students enjoyed the game very much, spending upto 2.5 hours playing it, when they were asked to only spend upto half an hour on it. Students also reported that the game helped them learn the concepts while having fun and asked for more such games. Following are some quotes:

Even though the game was hard, it helped me to understand the concept better. We should have more games like this to help us understand better
I actually like the idea of learning the lessons through game process because it is fun and I think that I learn better since I’m more interested. I had some difficulties but it was not that big deal – that was interesting idea to have us play to understand the concept
The website was a good [resource] that made me to understand concepts better
It was an interesting game. It as hard at first because I became confused about frequency but I eventually understood.
We need homework tasks that will boost our confidence. Something like this one.
The game helped me understand better… I would like more games like that in order to help me to understand
The game was interesting and helpful to better understand the subject.

To learn more about Physics to the Rescue, click here.

Simulation based assessments

2011-01-14T21:38:00.000-08:00

Most people will agree that simulations can pose richer questions. Here is a simulation based assessment: http://174.143.203.238/index.php/Collision_Question_1.

A screenshot image is included below.

Using SimInsights tools, it is easy to create a collection of such rich assessments and administer them through the web. For more such assessments, click here

Circuit simulator - SimOhm - now available

2010-12-19T14:34:00.000-08:00

A fourth simulation product SimOhm is now available. SimOhm allows modeling and simulation of circuits such as the Wheatstone bridge shown below.

Currently, SimOhm support resistors and cells. Linear as well as parallel circuits can be modeled and simulated. Sliders are provided to vary resistances and cell voltages. To simulate, simply click on the play icon. Then click on the probe icon to the left of the play icon and move the mouse pointer over various circuit elements to view currents, voltages etc. throughout the circuit. The model shown above can be accessed by clicking here.

Collaborative Simulation at Fremont High School in Northern California

2010-12-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

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.

Importing images into your simulations

2010-08-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

Now you can import images from the web into your SimNewton models and attach them to particles or the background. Images make is much easier to understand exactly what phenomenon is being modeled. Here is a simple model of a monkey swinging from a tree branch:

Choosing controls in your published simulations

2010-08-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

We just added a Publisher icon to SimNewton which allows users to select which toolbar icons, sliders and checkboxes are presented to the viewer when he or she opens a simulation from the repository. The following video explains how to use this feature:

SimNewton: The perfect way to embed examples in your website.

2010-08-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Attention all physics teachers! Looking for a fun way to spice up classical mechanics? If so, take a look at SimNewton! SimNewton is the easiest way to view simulations YOU make from anywhere! All you need is a Google or Yahoo mail account to start making your own simulations?

Too busy to make your own? Check out our public models at www.siminsights.com and see how our simulations can help you!

You probably won't be convinced from just our voice, though. How about seeing our examples for yourself? We've made models that demonstrate examples from California's high school physics curriculum. Check out for yourself how you can use our simulations to help you teach!

You can even embed our simulations into your own blogs, notes, or wherever else you may need them! Play around with the model of a beam below!

Online game based learning of physics concepts

2010-07-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

We are developing a set of educational self-paced stand-alone web-based games to help students learn basic physics concepts. These games integrate visual instructions with scientific inquiry pedagogy. The games are designed to help students develop scientific reasoning skills and construct physics knowledge using the scientific inquiry approach.

Last semester we tested one of our games in an introductory physics class in a community college. The goal of this wave mechanics focused game was to investigate concepts of period, wavelength, frequency and wave speed as well as the relations between those concepts. Students were asked to complete the game and fill a survey as a homework assignment prior to the lecture on wave mechanics. All students received a full score regardless of the performance in the game. Click here to see a high school student playing the wave game and here to play the game yourself.

Twenty students played the game and filled the survey. Although half of them had taken a physics course before, most of them had none or very little knowledge of wave mechanics concepts. Most of the students were able to complete all four levels in the game completely, spending on average 24 minutes. The figure below shows the survey results.

The survey showed that most of the students significantly improved their understanding of the concepts. It is noteworthy that attitude questions are typically not very trustworthy because of general willingness of students to please the teacher. Nevertheless many students gave positive comments and constructive suggestions on improving the game.

SimNewton Helps Students Think Like Engineers and Scientists

2010-07-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Engineers and scientists look at systems from many viewpoints. They look at images, videos, charts and text. These views together allow the professional to understand the system much better than any single view would. Software products that enable multiple views cost upto tens of thousands of dollars and take considerable effort to master. Jobs that require facility with such software are often the highest paid in the company and those workers are held in high esteem.

So it makes sense to try to integrate similar software in the curriculum at all levels of education, to prepare students to tackle complex problems using powerful software. This is the idea behind SimNewton - to let students work and think like scientists by looking at real world systems from many viewpoints - as shown in the figure below.

The figure shows a bouncing ball being simulated in SimNewton which provides four different views to students: animation, text and images, YouTube video and charts. Together these views allow the student to gain deeper insights into the dynamics of a bouncing ball than would be possible with just one of the views.

SimNewton is free for six months and is simple to learn, as is evident from the following brief instructions that were provided to students at the first SimNewton pilot conducted at Fremont High School near San Francisco last May:

1. Open the Safari Browser: Finder Face > Applications > Safari
2. Go to www.siminsights.com
3. Click on the orange button in the top right: “Sign In”
4. Click on a type of account (Google or Yahoo)
5. Enter your log in information
6. Click on “New” to make a model

Thats it! There is no users manual, reference guide or FAQ list. The students appreciated the simplicity of SimNewton. One student wrote:

"What my group and I liked about SimNewton was its easy-to-use ability. It is simple and efficient..."
-Ben A.

Please visit www.siminsights.com for more student quotes and try out SimNewton yourself.

Letting Others Play with Your Simulations

2010-07-26T21:40:00.001-07:00

There are many many simulations of interesting systems sitting on a hard drive, not being used by anyone. This is not because the creator wants to keep the simulations a secret, but because there is no easy way to share them with others. SimNewton makes sharing as easy as it should be.

Following is an interactive lumped parameter model of a cantilever beam built using SimNewton. Go ahead and click the Play icon and the simulation starts, just like a YouTube video, with one key difference: you can interact with the simulation as it runs, using your mouse. Remember to turn up your volume to hear the sounds.

For more such models, please visit our repository.

SimNewton used by high school seniors for exploring mechanics concepts

2010-07-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

Last week marked the end of a month long research class at Pomona College. Part of the Pomona Academy for Youth Success (PAYS), the class provided students an authentic computational research experience . Starting with only a brief introduction to SimNewton, the team of five students explored advanced concepts such as stability, buckling and resonance. They then put their understanding to use in evaluating various bridge designs (see poster). The class met four times a week for two hours each day.

Collaborative simulations

2010-07-21T00:56:00.000-07:00

A simulation takes too much effort to keep it to yourself. So its not surprising that most people share their simulations and the insights they afford. This sharing happens through conversations, meetings and presentations, but not through the browser because there is no Google Docs for simulations. At SimInsights, we are trying to change that.

We are working to enable collaborative simulations in the browser. We expect that this will facilitate meaningful discussions about rich behaviors that simulations almost always exhibit. We expect that this capability will help learning at all levels.

Please visit www.siminsights.com to experience our products.