Science Simulations: A Virtual Learning Environment

Experimental work is an integral part of science courses. Although excellent science learning can take place using the simplest equipment, the integration of laboratory activities with classroom work requires careful balancing between time allocation and budget restrictions.

Technology can be a powerful tool for learning science concepts and developing skills of measurement, analysis, and processing information. Virtual labs and simulations should not substitute for laboratory experience, but may be used to supplement and extend such experience.

In this posting I will discuss the advantages of using simulations, different types of simulations, simulation resources, and instructional strategies about implementing simulations in the science classroom.

What Education Research says

Education research shows that:

1. 'Students learn better and retain more when they are active through inquiry, investigation, and application, when they are in control of and responsible for their own learning.'

(Active Learning on the Web by Bernie Dodge, Department of Educational Technology, San Diego State University)

2. 'A survey, based on 62 courses with total enrollment of 6542 students, strongly suggests that the classroom use of interactive engagement methods can increase mechanics course effectiveness in both conceptual understanding and problem solving well beyond that achieved by traditional methods.'

3. Kozma and Johnston (1991) conceptualized seven ways in which instructional technology can support learning:

• Enabling active engagement in construction of knowledge
• Making available real-world situations
• Providing representations in multiple modalities
• Drilling students on basic concepts to reach mastery
• Facilitating collaborative activity among students
• Seeing interconnections among concepts
• Simulating laboratory work

(Kozma, R.B., and J. Johnston. 1991. "The technological revolution comes to the classroom." Change 23(1):10-23.)

Projectile Motion by Walter Fendt

What are the advantages to using simulations?

1. Simulations can help students translate among multiple representations.

Simulations contain physical systems represented in many different ways in two or three-dimensions: pictures, graphs, words, equations, diagrams, data tables, contour maps, etc. The students can make sense of the concepts by seeing the connection between the representations and how one variable affects another.

2. Simulations can help students build mental models of physical, chemical, biological, geological or astronomical systems.

Simulations allow students to visualize concepts that appear on textbooks or hear from their teachers in lectures. By using the simulation they can see a concrete situation that helps them build a mental model.

3. Simulations can give students engaging, hands-on, active learning experiences.

Simulations give students control when exploring scientific concepts and phenomena.

4. Simulations can help students understand equations as physical relationships among measurements.

Simulations are great tools to help students recognize how equations relate observations and measurements. Using a simulation where the students are able to vary parameters and see the effect of these variations, the role of equations is powerfully enriched.

5. Simulations can serve as a vehicle for student collaboration.

Students working in groups can use a simulation to explain and describe their understandings to each other.

6. Simulations can allow students to investigate phenomena that would not be possible to experience in a classroom or laboratory.

Students can have access to investigations and equipment not commonly available in the classroom like studying a nuclear reactor.

What is needed to use simulations?

Integrating simulations into the traditional classroom practice does not require sophisticated equipment. The basic equipment consists of a computer, a LCD projector and availability of an Internet connection though this is not necessary if the simulations are in a CD-ROM. Students can also access simulations individually in a computer lab or in a laptop environment.

The most common requirements for using simulations are free plug-ins like Flash, Shockwave, and QuickTime. Your browser must support Java for some simulations.

Most simulations are in the form of a Java Applet, a short program written in Java that is attached to a website and executed by a web browser.

A large amount of simulations include general directions; an audio clip and the most refined include multiple representations (vectors and graphs) and let the user modify the parameters to collect data.

How do I implement simulations in the science classroom?

Digital technologies require us to rethink our approach to the educational process.

The real challenge is not the actual technology, but finding pedagogies that use these digital tools to give our students an improved learning environment.

The following are some ideas about using simulations in the science classroom:

• Lectures

- To help students visualize abstract concepts: the use of simulations brings a visual and dynamic nature to a lecture presentation.

Photosynthesis

- To initiate a discussion on a reading assignment: simulations open up avenues of thought and discussion that are not typical of a textbook question.

Physlet Problem 4.1 Which is the correct free-body diagram?¹

• Interactive Demonstrations

Simulations can be used to ask students to make predictions, run the virtual experiment and then discuss the observations made and/or the collected data.

pH Scale

• Pre-Lab Exercises

Simulations can serve to introduce the ideas and equipment of the lab experiment allowing the students to work through the laboratory faster and with less confusion.

Circuit Construction Kit (DC Only)

Here is an example from one of my students’ blogs about using a DC Circuits simulation to explain the concepts of voltage and current in different circuit arrangements prior to going to the lab : AC/DC Not the Band

• Cooperative Group Problem-Solving

Simulations can be given to a student group to solve challenging problems that require multiple steps. This strategy allows students to understand the material more clearly by engaging in a demanding, higher order thinking skills problem.

Physlet Problem 11.5: Determine the torque on a yo-yo¹

• Virtual Labs

In many cases where time is a constraint or the equipment is not available virtual labs can provide the students with an accurate idea of a particular experiment by manipulating variables, collecting data, calculating, graphing and drawing conclusions.

Gravity and Orbits

Where do I find simulations?

One of the best websites for science simulations is PhET from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Originally founded by Physics Nobel Prize laureate Carl Weiman, PhET provides fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena for free. These simulations can be downloaded or played directly on your browser.

Teachers can access the Teacher Ideas & Activities page for teacher-submitted contributions, designed to be used in conjunction with the simulations.

These are the links to the core science courses simulations. The PhET website also contains excellent Math simulations.

PhET Simulations Biology

PhET Simulations Chemistry

PhET Simulations Physics

PhET Simulations Earth Science

Simulation Resources

Biology

Biology Online Labs

Comprehensive list to virtual labs and simulations

Anatomy Online Labs

Comprehensive list to virtual labs and simulations

Chemistry

Chemistry Online Labs

Comprehensive list to virtual labs and simulations

Earth Science/Geology

Geology Online Labs

Comprehensive list to virtual labs and simulations

Physics

Physics Simulations

My website contains links to hundreds of simulations.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the second Science Practice about using equations.

1. Mario Belloni and Wolfgang Christian. Physlet® Physics: Interactive Illustrations, Explorations, and Problems for Introductory Physics ISBN 0-13-101969-4, Prentice Hall, 2004

Cross-Posted at Voices From the Learning Revolution (PLP Network)

21st Century Science Teaching: Getting Students beyond Formula Hunting Strategies

In AP Physics (and many other science studies) the journey to find an answer to a problem is the most important component of the learning process – not the answer itself. Our need to make sure students think deeply about the subjects they study is one key reasons the College Board AP Program is undergoing revisions of several courses and exams in history, science and world languages.

The science course changes are driven by data from the National Research Council Report (2002) and aim to implement improvements in content and pedagogical approaches that represent best practices in teaching and learning.

The curriculum frameworks for the new science courses are organized around subject specific ‘Big Ideas’ with a strong focus on scientific reasoning and inquiry. The courses will emphasize depth over breadth and will include cutting edge areas of research within each discipline. The College Board recently released the Biology curriculum framework.

For students to be successful in these courses, teachers will need to use instructional strategies that require higher-order thinking skills that help develop a deeper conceptual understanding of the topics.

This is the first post in a blog series that will explore how the AP Science Practices can be integrated in the 21st century science classroom with a variety of strategies for the implementation of digital tools. While the primary focus will be in physics, the series will have relevance for other courses such as biology, chemistry and environmental science and could be used at the middle and high school levels.

Scientific Problems and Representations

The first science practice states:
The student can use representations and models to communicate scientific phenomena and solve scientific problems.

Problem-solving is a major part of a physics course. When confronted with challenging problems it is common to hear students say: “If I had the formula, I could solve this problem.” After all, finding the right equation is a key element in most textbooks’ problem-solving strategies and is often reinforced in the classroom through lectures, quizzes and tests. In most cases, by using appropriate equations a student is able to find the correct answer, but I will argue that finding the correct answer to a problem does not necessarily reflect a deep understanding of physics concepts. There are several studies in Physics Education Research that substantiate this claim. See the works cited on “An investigation of introductory physics students’ approaches to problem solving”

Effective Approaches to Problem-Solving

The ability to relate physics concepts to the situations presented by problems and questions is fundamental for success. A powerful strategy in developing a deep conceptual understanding is the use of Multiple Representations of Knowledge.

The diagram (*) below is an example commonly seen in kinematics problems. This example demonstrates how physics equations are only one representation of knowledge.

The Power of Multiple Representations

Here as an analysis of each of the representations and its usefulness in helping the students deepen their conceptual understanding:

- The real situation is the context of the problem; i.e., a car moving down a hill. It is common to represent real scenarios with a pictorial representation such as a sketch. It helps the students that have a preference for visual learning.

- A verbal representation could describe the motion of the car in the context of the problem, in this example students could say that the car speeds up as it travels down the hill, or the student can describe the energy transformation that occurs. It helps the students articulate what is happening in the given scenario to specific physics principles.

- The equation that describes the velocity in an inclined plane is the mathematical representation. This equation is usually derived from a free-body diagram by analyzing the forces acting on the car while it is accelerating.

- The situation can be represented in a numerical representation by providing data of position and velocity with respect to time. Data acquisition is often done in physics labs where students have to opportunity to gather the information in a hands-on experiment.

- The data obtained can be represented graphically in a velocity versus time graph. Graphical representations are commonly constructed from data collected in a lab experiment. Through graphs students can obtain information from the slopes, intercepts and areas under the curve. In this example the slope of the line represents the average acceleration and the area under the line yields displacement.

- A motion diagram can be used to illustrate the velocity vectors. This is another example that helps the students visualize the situation (a car speeding up) =i.e. increasing arrows as velocity vectors.

Students can demonstrate a deeper level of understanding of physics concepts by their ability to translate (move back and forth) between different representations of knowledge.

Multiple Representation Resources

Rutgers University Physics and Astronomy Education Research (PAER) group has written a document with the rationale about using multiple representations in physics, how to implement them in the classroom and how to score them: Multiple Representations in Physics

You can also download power points with multiple representation exercises:

1. Mechanics: kinematics, dynamics, energy, momentum and statics

2. Electricity and Magnetism: electrostatics, DC circuits and magnetism

Digital Tools for Multiple Representations

Verbal Representations

These tools can be used individually or in collaboration among students

Google Docs

CrocoDoc

SpringNote

Pictorial Representations

Image Editors

Sketchcast (Record a sketch with or without voice)

Pixlr

CoSketch

Google Sketchup for 3D Modeling

Mathematical Representations

Google Docs includes an Equation Editor

Equation Editor

Graphical Representations

Google Docs: Spreadsheets

LoggerPro: software for data collection and analysis through graphs

Create a Graph

ChartTool

Another powerful tool that helps with the implementation of Multiple Representations is the use of virtual simulations. In the next posting of this series I will be describing effective strategies for using simulations and a variety of resources for simulations in all core areas of science.

(*) Figure adapted from: Redish, Edward F. Teaching Physics: with the Physics Suite. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2002

Cross-Posted at Voices From the Learning Revolution (PLP Network)