Using Simulations in Teaching

I believe that the use of simulations, such as this block simulation offers several advantages in inquiry learning of physics.

Firstly, it allows for experiment based approach by:

• Bypassing logistic requirements that can be troublesome and/or impractical
• Allowing accurate and on-the-fly measurements to remove distraction from inquiry

Secondly, it facilitates stundents in inquiry process by:

• Having the possibility to demostrate "unseen" infomations that can help students to construct infomation
• Capable to present these infomation in incremental level

A student can use experiment based approach for divergent thinking, and subsequently use all the aid provided for convergent thinking

Simulations can, in general be used in most of the concept teaching in physics. with the affordance of simulation, topics such as ideal gas law can be demostrated in a more tangible way. Using simulations to help student concretize concepts can be a good approach in teaching. However, since simulation is not "first-hand" interation with real world, it is necessary to allocate enough time for conventional lab sessions, and possibly make link/comparison between lab and simulation so as to give a holistic view of science.

There are two other applets that are related to this chosen one.

http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/index.php?topic=10.0

an updated version of this applet used in Wiki. this applet has added function of adding extra levels beyond 4. it also allows the blocks to be moved both towards left and right of the original position. Yet the older version is selected because the new version has not-as-good input resolution. the new version is also capable of producing an impossible situation, where a block is clearly unbalanced yet is not indicated as such

a second applet is about center of mass, which will be useful when paired up with block applet to study more indepth of the overall center of mass

http://qbx6.ltu.edu/s_schneider/physlets/main/centermass.shtml

they focuses on different sub topics, but complements each other well. for instance, stundets can use the CoMass applet to confirm their hypothesis about the arrows in the first applet.

It would be good if the applet can introduce blocks of different density (so they can determine the which block goes higher) and un-uniform densities. In these case, there will be a more wholesome representation of this concept.