I will be giving a talk this coming Wednesday (www.mhvlug.org) http://news.squeak.org/2008/05/24/new-yorkers-chance-to-see-squeak-based-edu...
I'm working up my slides and I will be using the latest squeakland/etoys build to demo. I've done the "car" demo ( mastered that) and also can demo the "car on a track". But does anyone have any suggestions for math and science? aka something that I can build on the fly and show a topic that a Middle School or High School teacher would do in class?
Thanks
Joe Apuzzo Gnu_Joe
Have you done the acceleration demo like in B.J. Allen-Conn & Kim Rose's "Powerful Ideas in the Classroom" book and demoed on the "Squeakers" DVD and a bit in Alan's TED Talk? TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/228
Also, middle schoolers study angles. That might be an easy one to create one yourself.
Cheers, Darius
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Joe Apuzzo japuzzo@gmail.com wrote:
I will be giving a talk this coming Wednesday (www.mhvlug.org)
http://news.squeak.org/2008/05/24/new-yorkers-chance-to-see-squeak-based-edu...
I'm working up my slides and I will be using the latest squeakland/etoys build to demo. I've done the "car" demo ( mastered that) and also can demo the "car on a track". But does anyone have any suggestions for math and science? aka something that I can build on the fly and show a topic that a Middle School or High School teacher would do in class?
Thanks
Joe Apuzzo Gnu_Joe
Squeakland mailing list Squeakland@squeakland.org http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Joe Apuzzo japuzzo@gmail.com wrote:
I will be giving a talk this coming Wednesday (www.mhvlug.org) http://news.squeak.org/2008/05/24/new-yorkers-chance-to-see-squeak-based-edu...
I'm working up my slides and I will be using the latest squeakland/etoys build to demo. I've done the "car" demo ( mastered that) and also can demo the "car on a track". But does anyone have any suggestions for math and science? aka something that I can build on the fly and show a topic that a Middle School or High School teacher would do in class?
Alan Kay did an excellent demo at the OLPC Country Workshop recently. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Presentations/May_2008_Country_Workshop
He talked about teaching 10-year olds calculus and physics, among other things.
Demonstrate constant acceleration with the car leaving a dot before each time interval. Measure or calculate distances traveled, in addition to looking at the visual pattern. (The distances traveled in successive intervals are as successive odd numbers, and total distance is proportional to the square of the time.) Then video a ball dropping from the roof of the school, select frames at regular intervals, and compare the dot sequence to the one the car generated. Measure to get the local acceleration due to gravity, about 10 m/s/s.
Later, when you introduce conic sections, you can ask children what shape the streams from water fountains make. It has always puzzled me that the Greeks after Apollonius never noticed this, or at least never wrote it down if they did. It took until Galileo to make this discovery, which is obvious to children with minimal preparation as soon as their attention is directed to it.
Thanks
Joe Apuzzo Gnu_Joe _______________________________________________ Etoys mailing list Etoys@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/etoys
On Friday 30 May 2008 9:02:07 pm Joe Apuzzo wrote:
But does anyone have any suggestions for math and science? aka something that I can build on the fly and show a topic that a Middle School or High School teacher would do in class?
Attached are two ideas that can be initiated in Squeak.
In Vibrations, the cockroach moves around in circles while the spring moves up and down. Record the cockroach's y variation and then that of the spring. Once the similarity sinks in, record the sum of both offsets.
Seed Growth illustrates tree structures may grow out of small seeds by applying simple rules repeatedly at various levels. Environmental causes like sunlight, rain, insects can introduce growth variations.
Architecture follows up on the growth story. The sequence 1,2,3,4 is one-dimensional while 1,2,2^2, 3^2 is two dimensional and then there are structures which grow in fractions - 1, 2^1.58, 3^1.58.
Followups on periodicity, symmetry and self-similarity could involve studying trees, human bronchii, African hairstyles and village layouts, Indian kolams and mehendi designs.
Subbu
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