[IAEP] Physics

Hi All, I sent this yesterday, but it got filtered out by some machine since I didn't send it as a "reply". So I am sending it again today. This is the "old science teacher" in me talking...I think the Physics Activity has great potential for getting students interested in Physics and in think

Re: [IAEP] Physics

. The fact that this happens doesn't make it excusable, but it does illustrate how hard real science is to really do -- and how difficult it is to teach and learn. Very best wishes, Alan ________ From: Caryl Bigenho To: IAEP SugarLabs Sent: Tuesday, June

Re: [IAEP] Physics

On 30 Jun 2009, at 17:21, Caryl Bigenho wrote: > Hi All, > > I sent this yesterday, but it got filtered out by some machine since > I didn't send it as a "reply". So I am sending it again today. > > This is the "old science teacher" in me talking...I think the > Physics Activity has great pot

Re: [IAEP] Physics

rd to seeing what else you will do with it. Caryl > CC: iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org; asa...@gmail.com; bcjor...@gmail.com > From: g...@garycmartin.com > To: cbige...@hotmail.com > Subject: Re: [IAEP] Physics > Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:00:42 +0100 > > On 30 Jun 2009, at 17:21, Cary

Re: [IAEP] Physics

I like Physics, thanks for drawing my attention to it. A simple guide to hacking Physics using Activities that normally come with a XO (Browse, Pippy & Terminal) at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Modifying_Activities#Modifying_Physics > Currently all objects have the same material settings: >

Re: [IAEP] Physics

a state of mind other than one's own at the moment, and to think of alternatives to currently accepted views, including what you believe yourself. These skills, like most, are partly a matter of talent and partly a matter of practice. As with music, few can become professionals of the highest rank

Re: [IAEP] Physics

e were there to make sure that real science was actually happening. This was facilitated by lots of meetings with the teacher outside of the classroom) Best wishes, Alan From: Edward Cherlin To: Alan Kay Cc: Caryl Bigenho ; IAEP SugarLabs Sent: Wednesday

Re: [IAEP] Physics

, the dots and arrows can be > much more illuminating and memorable for the children. (For 10-11 year olds > -- and for lots of other ages -- remembering ideas about motion in turns of > pictorial patterns is a great way to aid retention over long periods of > time) > > -- we did this using the classroom

Re: [IAEP] Physics

On Wednesday 01 Jul 2009 6:05:08 pm Alan Kay wrote: > An important part of "ball drop" was the separation of 3-4 months between > "the math" (scripting various kinds of motion for the children's painted > cars and dropping markers to reveal the history of their motion), and "the > science" (handlin

Re: [IAEP] Physics

alized that accuracy meant including error tolerances with the observations. Boiling all this down, it's just real math and real science for real children's minds and using the computer when it really helps. Cheers, Alan From: K. K. Subramaniam To: iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org Cc: Ala

Re: [IAEP] Physics

On Friday 03 Jul 2009 6:16:07 pm Alan Kay wrote: > Actually, I passed out several documents to OLPC at a "countries meeting" a > few years ago (a book that we had written for teachers containing about a > dozen of these activities, and a 50 page work in progress document that > tried to say a littl

Re: [IAEP] Physics

rms of whole systems. There are very few teachers in the US that understand any of this, even in HS. Cheers, Alan From: K. K. Subramaniam To: Alan Kay Cc: iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org Sent: Saturday, July 4, 2009 12:51:20 AM Subject: Re: [IAEP] Physics On Friday 03 Jul 2

Re: [IAEP] Physics

Just a snip from Gabriel Eirea from a recent post about Activities, > One more comment: kids are hungry for games, all types of games, all > the time, there is no way to satisfy them. They don't want just the > "finished" activities, they want the simple pacman clone and tetris > clone and all the

[IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

Physics is so cool! One of the students today did a really great job with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nseWyxaN6g Does anyone have an idea for a 1 hour or so lesson I could do with Physics that would teach a Physics concept and still be incredibly engaging? -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grov

[IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

>build a complex or elegant building that doesn't fall down This can be done on top of an earthquake simulator (see attached image). The earthquake simulator can be modified to produce longitudinal and transverse waves. Greetings, Asaf <>___ IAEP -- It'

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 6:03 PM, Caroline Meeks wrote: > Physics is so cool! One of the students today did a really great job with > it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nseWyxaN6g > Does anyone have an idea for a 1 hour or so lesson I could do with > Physics that would teach a Physics concept and 

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

one possibility would be to not attempt to teach physics but to make a game good for introduction and also for teamwork see http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/08/wow-factor-physics.html http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/08/physics

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

Yes, I think thats a good idea. Also maybe its engineering principals not Physics that should be the learning objectives. What I'm realizing is that really I'm giving demos to teachers about h0w to use Sugar to support learning. So what I want is a bunch of lessons using various different activit

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

I might try these next week and see how they go: does altering the size of an object affect its drop time? does joining objects together (large and small) affect drop time? does altering the length of a pendulum affect its swing time? before doing the above say what you think will happen after doi

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

On Friday 14 Aug 2009 7:40:30 pm Caroline Meeks wrote: > For Physics I think I want a really simple challenge that I can demo then > have students solve it fairly quickly. then I want a couple levels of > additional challenge where students can solve problems in different ways. For best results, p

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

Hi Bill, Not sure if you wanted answers :-) On 15 Aug 2009, at 02:51, Bill Kerr wrote: I might try these next week and see how they go: does altering the size of an object affect its drop time? No does joining objects together (large and small) affect drop time? No Remember, you can ru

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

On 15 Aug 2009, at 20:58, Asaf Paris Mandoki wrote: >> build a complex or elegant building that doesn't fall down > > This can be done on top of an earthquake simulator (see attached > image). The earthquake simulator can be modified to produce > longitudinal and transverse waves. Now that is a r

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

thanks for response and additional suggestions, Gary and Asaf (and screenshots are very useful) I'll create a worksheet for my class and post the link when done - thinking that I'll organise it into a basic, harder and advanced sections Caroline there are already great ideas for lessons and screen

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

> I'll create a worksheet for my class and post the link when done - thinking > that I'll organise it into a basic, harder and advanced sections Good idea. > is water possible? > that would fit nicely with density experiments Water as a medium is technically possible but I'm still not sure how cou

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

Hi Folks I've previously written a fair amount on this list about what real science is actually about and it would be tiresome to repeat it. And I'm sure you have reasons for what you've been suggesting in this thread about ways to use a simulation software package in Sugar. But are you sure

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

hi alan, I'm not sure how your argument here would not apply also to etoys? Is your objection mainly to the name of the program - physics? On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 12:00 PM, Alan Kay wrote: > Hi Folks > > I've previously written a fair amount on this list about what real science > is actually a

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

her Euclid to student Ptolemy "Sire, there is no Royal Road to Geometry". I'm happy to answer questions about this vital issue. Best wishes, Alan From: Bill Kerr To: Alan Kay Cc: Gary C Martin ; iaep SugarLabs ; Brian Jordan ; Asaf Paris Ma

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

I agree 100% with Alan about simulations by themselves not being science (as tempting as it is for schools wishing to save money by scrapping their labs to think so), but given the general direction of this discussion I wanted to point out an old system written in Smalltalk called the Alternate Rea

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

happy students are easier to have discussions with about more complex topics. Just some ideas for further discussion > > > Best wishes, > > Alan > -- > *From:* Bill Kerr > *To:* Alan Kay > *Cc:* Gary C Martin ; iaep SugarLabs < > i

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

Alan You ask whether Bill's Physics Activity suggestions have anything to do with real science. You rightly point out that the Physics Activity is an imperfect simulation of the real world and just as mysterious. Certainly playing with the Physics Activity is not the best way to discover how th

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

magic of playing with a computer. Best wishes, Alan From: "fors...@ozonline.com.au" To: Alan Kay Cc: iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2009 12:25:11 AM Subject: Re: Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas? Alan You ask whether Bill's Physics Ac

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

On Sunday 16 Aug 2009 9:42:39 am Bill Kerr wrote: > Is there are real danger of students getting the wrong idea about science > from using the physics program? I'm not really sure - some will, some won't > - but I think my students see it as a game type program rather than a > reality show. Their s

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

ke > working mathematical models of them. This is the science part. > > In any case, one of the important parts of this discussion is to be able to > deal with the magic of playing with a computer. > > Best wishes, > > Alan > > > Fr

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

How do we help people find this sort of idea and the video I made? I think we need to link them from the activities.sugarlabs.org page somehow. Is there already a solution for this? On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 4:20 PM, Gary C Martin wrote: > On 15 Aug 2009, at 20:58, Asaf Paris Mandoki wrote: > > >

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

There is room in the description field in ASLO to include links. Probably we want to link to a generic Physics page in the wiki and go from there. -walter On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Caroline Meeks wrote: > How do we help people find this sort of idea and the video I made?  I think > we nee

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

On 18 Aug 2009, at 17:49, Caroline Meeks wrote: > How do we help people find this sort of idea and the video I made? > I think we need to link them from the activities.sugarlabs.org page > somehow. Is there already a solution for this? Currently we're building up: http://wiki.sugarl

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

> > Best wishes, > > Alan > -- > *From:* Bill Kerr > *To:* Alan Kay > *Cc:* Gary C Martin ; iaep SugarLabs < > iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org>; Brian Jordan ; Asaf Paris > Mandoki > *Sent:* Saturday, August 15, 2009 7:38:06 PM >

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

Hi Bill, On 22 Aug 2009, at 22:44, Bill Kerr wrote: > hi alan, > still thinking about the broader issue you raise about the > importance of > real science and its connection to computer based work and how to > attempt to > implement this in school settings (complex issue) > > however, I do no

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

ry (because it contains instantaneous action at a distance). However, many who came after him confused his "best story right now" with the kinds of stories in the the Bible that they believed in, and this in certain areas of science (e.g. dealing with Maxwells's equations) held them s

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

remarked that "Newton was not a strict > Newtonian", and this is quite true. For example, he didn't think that the > inverse square "law" could possibly be the whole story (because it contains > instantaneous action at a distance). However, many who came after hi

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

?) (Not a rhetorical question ...) Cheers, Alan From: Bill Kerr To: Alan Kay Cc: Gary C Martin ; iaep SugarLabs ; Brian Jordan ; Asaf Paris Mandoki Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 5:40:38 PM Subject: Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas? hi alan, I have read yo

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 04:49:53PM -0700, Alan Kay wrote: > Four months earlier they did some play with this with the cars on > their screen and are able to see that this should be the same model, > but vertically not horizontally. They write a script with the two > "increase by"s and then find

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

do with respect to "what's out there?". Best wishes, Alan From: Joshua N Pritikin To: Alan Kay Cc: Bill Kerr ; iaep SugarLabs Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 8:20:01 PM Subject: Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas? On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 04

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

>> Science is the process of trying to put what we can investigate and >> think about "what's out there" in as close a relation as possible with >> what we can represent in symbols. In practise this is a kind of >> coevolution. > > And I don't see why you don't do that with the Physics activity. Fo

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 08:41:40PM -0700, Alan Kay wrote: > The important thing about what the computer does in this case -- > repeated incremental additions -- is that the children can and do > carry it out themselves. Well, perhaps gravity is an ideal topic to teach for this age group. Howev

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

ly difficult to dislodge once formed (and we have a lot of human biology that is very biased towards outlooks that are not harmonius with the scientific outlook). Best wishes, Alan From: Joshua N Pritikin To: Alan Kay Cc: iaep SugarLabs Sent: Sunday, A

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

rd. Our opinion is that we need to find as many physical situations where the gross phenomena are: -- in the world scale that the child lives in -- where it is easy enough to investigate in sufficient detail what is happening -- and where the math to model it is completely understandable to the ch

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 12:23 PM, Alan Kay wrote: > Hi Asaf > > Among other things, our human brains are set up by nature to > -- take the world as it seems > -- want to learn the culture around us > -- believe (and then try to justify our beliefs) > -- especially believe our tribes, from fa

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

an by this. Cheers, Alan From: Maria Droujkova To: Alan Kay Cc: Asaf Paris Mandoki ; Sue VanHattum ; iaep SugarLabs ; Joshua N Pritikin ; Dmitri Droujkov Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 10:04:08 AM Subject: Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas? On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 12:2

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/ Math 2.0 interest group > > ------ > *From:* Maria Droujkova > *To:* Alan Kay > *Cc:* Asaf Paris Mandoki ; Sue VanHattum < > mathanthologyedi...@gmail.com>; iaep SugarLabs ; > Joshua N Pritikin ; Dmitri Drou

Re: [IAEP] Physics - Lesson plans ideas?

that they believed in, and this in certain areas of science (e.g. > dealing with Maxwells's equations) held them severely back. Newton > understood the epistemology of science and they didn't. Newton is also described as the last of the medieval magicians, in light of his alchemi

[IAEP] Physics Activity - Should we change the name

Sugar is blessed with a number of powerful activities that are platforms for open ended creativity. - Turtle Art - eToys - Tam Tam Suite - Scratch - FlipSticks I notice they all have names that under promise and don't set up rigid expectations. I think Physics could follow this na

Re: [IAEP] Physics Activity - Should we change the name

now just an empty gesture.) So most of the small percentage of the children who do become fluent in real science do so outside the regular classroom, and very often via contact through some knowledgeable adult. Best wishes, Alan ____ From: Caroline Meeks To: iaep Se

[IAEP] "Physics with XO" by Guzmán Trinidad now available in English

Our team would like to share with the community the immediate availability [1] of Guzmán Trinidad's "Physics with XO". It is a book that includes 30 experimental activities for the Physics Laboratory that utilize the XO laptop's capabil

[IAEP] Physics With the XO (in Spanish) by Trinidad Guzman of Uruguay

Hi All, Some of you may remember Guzman Trinidad from Ciebal Jam. He is the teacher who showed us so many wonderful sensors that he made to do experiments with XOs in his science classes. Well, he has just finished writing a book: Physics with the XO I haven't had a chance to read it all yet,