Ed Tech (& More) by Bowman--Dr. B's Ed Tech & PC Blog

The Simulations

Studyiong Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

I. Purpose

These simulations (and the associated exploration activities) were mainly written by me while I was a professor of physics at Bridgewater College in Virginia, USA, and have been used by myself and other professors and teachers in physics and astronomy courses. The goal of the project continues to be to develop web-based simulations (with exercises) that are interactive visualizations of scientific concepts. While designed primarily for high school and college students, these activities have also been used by lay person with some scientific literacy.

Visualization: Most persons learn better when a scientific concept or its consequences can be visualized. All of the Phys-Astro Sims activities emphasize visual output so that a user will leave the activity saying, "Ah ha, I saw it!".
Interactive: Learning is also enhanced when a participant interacts with the material rather than just passively reading and reciting it. The Phys-Astro Sims activities allow the user to experiment and then visualize the results of that experimentation.
Web-based: The PhysAstro Sims web-pages are written in very basic HTML and JavaScript and thus allow any person, regardless of the particular computer and web browser in use, to interact with the concepts under study. If a simulation does not work in your browser. please report this on the form below.
Associated Exercise Page: Each simulation has an accompanying lab "write-up" or exercise that can guide a user through using the simulation to learn the concepts upon which the simulation was built. These exercises can also be modified by a teacher for their own purposes. Each one can be completed within two-hours by a student.
Additional Resources: The introductory page to each simulation and the pages of the simulation also describes the concepts involved. Books and other web links are also included.

The simulations that are part of this PhysAstro Sims site were originally written for the project entitled ISAW (pronounced "I saw") which stood for Interactive Science Activities on the Web.

II. The Simulations and Associated Activities

III. Using The Activities

These simulations may be used directly from this Ed Tech by Bowman site. However, if they are to be used in a classroom/laboratory setting, then the instructor may wish to copy them to their own server. Permission is hereby granted to do such copying if the hyperlinks to PhysAstro Sims and the author(s) are left intact. Check the PhysAstro Sims site regularly so as to have available the latest version of each activity on your own server.

Cautions

The above simulations were tested using the latest versions (and many earlier versions, too) of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Maxthon. and the simulations all worked fine. If you have a problem, please report it to the address below. BUT beware of the following requirements.

Browsers must be set to allow cookies and to be able to use JavaScript in order for these simulations to function properly. (Cookies are used to store values entered in a form so that the next web page can use these values for its calculations.)
Text-based browsers will not be able to use these activities since the resulting plots are images and cannot be displayed as text.

IV. Other Physics Simulations

Merlot--a large collection of many forms of multimedia learning materials including the simulations at PhysAstro Sims. Many of these are peer-reviewed.
PhET--a good collection of interactive simullaitons in physics, biology, chemistry and math.
Interactive Physics Simulations--these were written by A. John Mallinckrodt using the software, Interactive Physics.
Science, Optics and You--some Java tutorials on light and optics from the Molecular Expressions site at Florida State University.
Fowler's Physics Applets--constructed by Michael Fowler, University of Virginia.
Simulabs--programs (no web functionality) for many lab simulaitons from Dr. Rick Tarara of Saint Marys College (USA).
IPPEX Interactive Physics Modules--featuring matter, electricity & magnetism, energy and fusion.
Physics 2000--an interactive journey through modern physics.

V. JavaScript Resources

Effective Web Sites: Development & Evaluation--this is an annotated list of resources for developing web pages that I have culled over the years; in the bottom half are several links relating to JavaScript.
Web Authoring For Interactivity Using JavaScript And Forms--a place to begin learning about JavaScript with tutorials, examples, and references (book and online resources); it is somewhat dated, and I need to update it.

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