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K-12 Education Simulators
Simulators for Teaching Physics
A tutorial explains how steering the wrong way can complicate a skid
Results of a skid resulting from going too fast - students see how panicking can make things worse
The Travel Around a Curve Simulator that helps students understand the implications of different speeds and road conditions for getting safely around a curve
Travel around a curve
Collisions
All Materials Copyright Gary B. Hirsch
With another simulator, students can set up different types of collisions and (safely) observe the results
Heat Flow in a Home
A third physics simulator lets students understand heat flow in houses, experiment with different methods of energy conservation, and compare costs
(.pdf - 761k)
(.doc - 694k)
(.zip - 1.13MB)
(.zip - 1.08MB)
(.zip - 1.18MB)
Physics Downloads
Retail Simulator for Teaching Economics
Running a retail store teaches students about basic economics
They can try different strategies for growing their customer base and learn the importance of good service for keeping customers
Students are able to “drill down” and understand what’s going on in more detail
Paper on using retail simulator to teach economics
(.pdf - 673k)
Presentation on using retail simulator to teach economics
(.ppt - 1010k)
(.zip - 2.85MB)
Accompanying Documents:
Simulator for Planning School Reform
A school reform simulator let’s communities understand the complexity and difficulty of making the changes necessary to respond to new external standards
Issue of Creative Learning Exchange newsletter with article on use of simulators for K-12 education
(.pdf - 493k)
Paper on School Reform Simulator
(.pdf - 1.13MB)
Presentation on School Reform Simulator
(.ppt - 116k)
(.itm - 295k)
*Requires free version of isee player from isee systems)