Real-World Science Simulations
CK-12’s real-world simulations take advantage of today’s digital medium. Today, affordable tablets and laptop computers are more powerful than high-end desktop computers were 10 years ago. While ebooks and videos are great resources, why limit these fabulous devices to consumption of just these resources?
With a dream to take student understanding of physics concepts to the next level, we at CK-12 are working tirelessly to make our simulations available, relevant, and engaging to all students.
Below are some of the challenges facing physics education today that inspired us to develop our collection of real-world physics simulations:
Too few high school students take Physics
Below is a snippet from an article from Cornell University:
“Only 1/3 of US high school students take physics. The majority of science-capable high school students end up in biology and the life sciences.”
Physics = Math?
Most students fear physics because they think to learn physics, you have to be really good at math. While it is true to some extent, why can’t we decouple math from physics a bit? After all, in one sense, physics is our window to understanding the laws of nature and every human deserves the opportunity to understand that at the conceptual level.
True understanding of physics concepts
Out of the small fraction of students who do end up taking Physics (kudos to them!), only a few of them truly understand the ideas conceptually. For many, physics is:
- Memorize the formula.
- Find values for variables.
- Substitute values in the formula and get the answer.
These mathematical answers become separated from the important conceptual understanding of how physical principles actually play out in the real world.
Too abstract
It’s very hard to deny that physics is often taught in a very dry, abstract manner. Most often, instructors offer text-heavy explanations of physical phenomena that are irrelevant to students’ day-to-day life.
Engagement
In today’s world, where the students are used to high-end graphics and sophisticated user interfaces on their laptops and mobile devices, our simulations have to offer a great user experience. Most of the science simulations out there look really old and outdated. While we completely agree that content, accuracy, and pedagogy are of utmost importance, it does not have to be either / or in relation to design.
Access
Making sure that simulations just work out-of-the-box on laptops and tablets is very essential or else we will lose students’ interest and patience.
We saw the list above as a call-to-action. As a result, the CK-12 team has worked tirelessly to create over 100 physics simulations that are relevant, engaging, and accessible to all students.
So let’s explore how CK-12 simulations work!
Each simulation begins with a curiosity based question
Typically not a question that is easy to answer just once; rather, a question that one might come back to time and again throughout a physics education —
“What does it mean to say we live in three dimensions?”
“Why does a violin sound different from a guitar?”
“How can we visualize electricity?”
The question is followed by an introductory video
The video demonstrates some of the ideas that will be addressed in the simulation and poses further guiding questions. The idea is to:
- Generate curiosity and a thirst for exploration
- Ease the fear of Physics by giving them a relatable example
- Transition students smoothly from the physical to the abstract world
Then the user is placed in an interactive “sandbox” environment — playtime!!
After the introductory video, user is taken to a “sandbox” environment. We refer to this as the “sandbox” because it is meant for students to jump in, play around, and discover new things. In the “sandbox”, students will find sliders for certain physical variables and graphs along with responsive animations to illustrate the relationship between these variables and the environment.
The “sandbox” allows a student to fully explore the environment
Manipulate various sliders/parameters and see its immediate effect on the simulation. Make various observations and formulate a hypothesis of what is happening. If needed, use paper and pencil to take notes, write values of various situations, and give it a shot to understand the correlations!
The tutorial walkthrough video helps clear misconceptions
In the process of learning and understanding the essential parts of the concept(s), students might have developed some misconceptions. This is an integral part of the learning process. That is where the tutorial walkthrough videos available for each and every simulation come in handy! Their goal is to clear misconceptions!
Conceptual Challenge Questions inspire and fuel discussions with peers
We can’t ignore the power of brainstorming and group learning and this constructive dialogue of arguments is an essential part of learning!
All the different kinds of high-quality CK-12 content provide a unified experience to learning.
If a student wants to learn or brush up on some of the Physics concepts used in the simulations, they can learn from a variety of different modalities CK-12 offers.
The idea is to never miss a learning moment!
Students always have a chance to check their understanding
Using questions provided with each simulation, students can find answers by manipulating the simulation and get instant feedback!
Students love to understand the real world applications of Physics concepts!
Their immediate response is often, “Where else can I find these concepts in use? Give me more examples!”
We won’t let this request go unanswered!
Although these simulations are formally labeled as “physics,” their topical coverage is broad and we do have simulations that relate to concepts regarding physical science, earth science, astronomy, and even math!
Teachers and students should also check out our worksheet that is available with every simulation. These worksheets help work through these simulations in a guided way.
Check us out at https://www.ck12.org/sims
Thank you,
The CK-12 Team
