We plan to build an html-based tutorial that will guide high school physics students toward the solution of a real-world engineering problem: placing a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. The tutorial will draw on concepts the students have learned in class (e.g. circular motion, centripetal acceleration, universal gravitation, etc.), but will provide hints and scaffolding when necessary, based on the selections students make in response to various questions posed by the tutorial.
Textbook problems generally don't incorporate more than one concept, and therefore don't reflect the kind of real-world problem solving that gets done by engineers. Instead, these problems typically involve the mapping of a single formula onto an idealized (and often abstract) setting. This means that students are less motivated than they would be if they could see a concrete and useful purpose for the exercise. Without an overriding goal it is also difficult for students to place each concept they've learned into a practical framework of knowledge.
We feel that via technology-base scaffolding, students might be able to harness multiple concepts covered via traditional means (e.g. textbook, lecture, lab, etc.) to solve these more interesting, motivating problems. Since real world engineering problems significantly increase the cognitive load and the concepts to be employed would be so new to the students, an expert (instructor) would normally be required to lead them through the process, either one-on-one (impractical) or during a class-wide problem-solving exercise (which wouldn't necessarily involve all students directly).
What kinds of technology would provide the best scaffolding for individual or small group activity (i.e. 2 or 3 students)? We hope that a hypertext-based tutorial could provide the average student with enough hints, direction, and supporting information to solve engineering problems involving multiple concepts. This kind of activity will also make the importance of each concept clearer by situating it within a larger, real-world context.
After covering several units on Newtonian force & motion, two dimensional motion, etc. students would be given 2-3 lab days to work individually or in small groups at a computer. They would use Netscape to surf their way through an interactive html-based tutorial directed toward solving a large engineering problem (e.g. placing a satellite in geosynchronous orbit). The session would begin with a loosely defined goal (e.g. We'd like to keep an eye on the South American rain forest around the clock from space.) The first step for the students would be to develop this into a more concrete question to work on and eventually solve (e.g. What would the altitude and velocity of a satellite need to be for it to circle the Earth exactly once every 24 hours?) After the question was well-formulated, the tutorial would guide the student through identifying the relevant variables and choosing/applying appropriate formulas to arrive at numerical solutions.
The tutorial would accomplish each of these tasks by posing a question and providing several possible responses, each with its own link to a unique page. Incorrect responses would provide the student with scaffolding in the form of hints, diagrams/animations, explanations, etc. that would put the student back on the right track. The correct response would require the student(s) to type in a jusification for their selection which would ensure that they didn't randomly select the response (or exhaust all possible responses). These justifications could be collected into a single text file which would then be provided (e.g. e-mailed) to the instructor for assessment. Incentives could also be given for completing each part of the problem with a minimum of extra help.
After coming up with a solution to the problem, it would be nice if students could use simulation software like ThinkerTools to "check their math." Unfortunately, ThinkerTools is not currently flexible enough to allow careful control over all variables involved in orbital design. There are also serious representational challenges (e.g. speeding time up to view 24 hours in 24 seconds, animating a rotating Earth picture, etc.) These kinds of features would make ThinkerTools more appropriate for high school Physics, but it's unclear whether Chris has enough time to get them working this term. It's possible that we could instead do a simple animation within the tutorial itelf using the student's calculations, but this might actually be more difficult than hacking ThinkerTools.
Physics Hypertext Site List - A bunch of links to college Physics courses conducted on or supplemented by the web.
Rotational Motion Tutorial - A complete tutorial on rotational motion. There are a few self-test questions, but you just get a "correct!" or "no, you should have done it this way..." answer, rather than having different information and/or questions provided in response to the specific answer given.
The Interactive Physics Textbook - Doesn't seem very interactive to me, but I didn't try the Java version.
Please e-mail comments regarding this web site to: schmed@transpac.com.
© 1997, Chris Schneider. All Rights Reserved World Wide.
Last updated 18 February 1997