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

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

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

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

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"

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

1. Teacher emails siminsights@gmail.com to request a class code
2. SimInsights emails a class code to the requesting teacher
3. Teacher emails code to all students in class
4. Upon receiving class code from teacher, student 1 adds the class code to access the repository
5. Student 1 builds a model and publishes it to the class repository using the class code 
6. Other students begin to comment on student 1's model
7. This happens for all students in the class, due to which the class repository starts filling up with models and comments on them
8. 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

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

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