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Simulations in the Classroom: Creating an Engaging Pedagogy

Simulations in the Classroom: Creating an Engaging Pedagogy. Scott A. Sinex Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering Prince George’s Community College. Presented at the Computation and Science for Teachers Workshop held at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Pittsburgh, PA

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Simulations in the Classroom: Creating an Engaging Pedagogy

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  1. Simulations in the Classroom:Creating an Engaging Pedagogy Scott A. Sinex Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering Prince George’s Community College Presented at the Computation and Science for Teachers Workshop held at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Pittsburgh, PA on 23-27 June 2008

  2. Students should… • Deal with data and graphs from • experimental results • prepared data sets from Internet • Look for trends • Introduce mathematical modeling • Regression • Goodness of Fit

  3. Use simulations… • To examine microscopic interactions • NetLogo • Agent Sheets • Many Java applets on the Internet • To explode mathematics of macroscopic interactions • Excelets • Vensim or Stella

  4. Where do we start? • Select a single basic modeling tool – Excel • Learn some principles of mathematical modeling • Develop computationally-based simulations

  5. An ideal approach… Single variable experiment Multivariable simulation Develop an ideal mathematical model Add error to make real-world science process oriented

  6. Guided instruction… • Written guided-inquiry or discovery based instructions (think like your students when you pose questions!) • Predict-test-analyze • Try it and then revise/rewrite it!!!!!

  7. Ultimately… • Integrated mathematics and science • A very science process oriented approach • Your students could be developing models on their own

  8. This is just the beginning… Computational science can study… • Weather and climate • Disease spread • Engineering design See the PSC Scientific Visualization Gallery http://www.psc.edu/research/graphics/gallery

  9. Let the journey begin!!!!! but first some coffee

  10. Resources • Exercises developed by previous CAST participants http://www.psc.edu/eot/k12/cast.php (see previous years) • Computational Resources by MVHS http://mvhs.shodor.org/CAST2008 • Developer’s Guide to Excelets http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex/excelets • Introduction to Computational ScienceAngela B. Shiflet and George W. Shiflet http://wofford-ecs.org/IntroComputationalScience

  11. Data analysis • Graphing with Excel – LabWrite • http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/res/gt/gt-menu.html • Using Excel for Handling, Graphing, and Analyzing Scientific Data:  A Resource for Science and Mathematics Students • http://academic.pgcc.edu/psc/Excel_booklet.pdf

  12. Data sets • Quantitative Environmental Learning Project (QELP) as Excel files http://seattlecentral.edu/qelp/Data.html • Exploring Data – datasets as Excel files http://exploringdata.cqu.edu.au/datasets.htm Email contact: ssinex@pgcc.edu

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