Re: Empiry

[Herb Schulz <herbs@interaccess.com>]

At 09:32 PM -0500 1/8/98, John Gastineau wrote:
> ...
> Students know that the underlying rules of the simulation are the very
> rules that they are expected to learn in their physics course. As a
> result they have _considerable_ respect for the simulation--it allows
> them a tool to explore those rules in a way that complements physical
> experiments particularly well. It might help their grades, after all. (!)

Howdy,

I'm not at all convinced that students "know" that at all; it's all a big
electronic game to them.  And knowing that doing the simulation and
"believing it" might help their grades is NOT and inducement to learning.

> Let me expand on that last comment. One way that I have used simulations
> with good success is to have students do an experiment (a physical
> experiment, that is). Then, we open a simulation that models the
> phenomenon that they have just observed. In the simulation it is easy to
> vary parameters (i.e., to explore parameter space). Once can encourage
> students to understand the system by asking "what would happen if you
> increased the mass (or coefficient of friction, or...)?" Being able to
> successfully make such predictions requires a good understanding of the
> physics. The simulation allows much more practice than one can get using
> a physical experiment. The two go hand in hand.
> ...

Combining an experiment with a simulation may be the ONLY way for a student
to gain any real belief in the simulation program.  If you want to use
simulations this is the way to do it!

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs@interaccess.com)