We are delighted to be able to offer a growing collection of free software and student materials that use this software. Through grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, we have produced a number of innovative software packages and incorporated them into hundreds of powerful learning activities, each tested in real classrooms. Whatever you teach, at whatever level, we have software-based learning activities that can improve your teaching. Our strengths are in science at the secondary and college levels. We also have algebra software and sustainable development materials that can be used across disciplines and grade levels. Visit our Software Download Center5 to get access to these great materials.
This special issue of the newsletter features a number of activities based on our free software. It includes five hands-on lessons for you to use in your classroom. “Monday’s Lesson” has been a regular feature of this newsletter that demonstrates one way our materials can be easily implemented in a classroom. This has been such a popular column that we are expanding it in this issue to include five lessons, named for each weekday. Of course, you can use them on any day of the week! The lessons are not intended for sequential use for a particular discipline; instead they highlight the variety of activities available from the exciting work at The Concord Consortium.
We have long advocated educational uses of handheld computers, because they provide an affordable alternative to full-sized computers. Handhelds are not only as good as larger computers in some situations, their portability makes them superior for field studies. (See Monday’s Lesson6: Handheld Computers in the Field on page 6.)
The Molecular Workbench is a sophisticated model of the interactions among atoms and molecules. Learning activities based on this model help clarify what is happening at the atomic level and have been used with all the sciences and engineering from middle school through college. The Molecular Workbench model is embedded in a special word processor, so you can build your own activities. The easy-to-use activity building tool handles text, one or more models, buttons and other controllers, graphs and other model outputs, and student response areas, which makes it easy to create your own model-based learning activity for students. Over 100 learning activities have been created by us and by teachers like you, and are cataloged in an online database. (See Tuesday’s Lesson7: Making Molecular Models Your Own on page 8.)
Another simple authoring environment is WISE8, developed by our collaborators Jim Slotta and Marcia Linn at Berkeley. WISE allows you to make activities or modify ones that others have made. An activity is constructed from a series of steps. Several dozen types of steps are available; each step can be customized by filling in an online form. Steps can include a Molecular Workbench, BioLogica, or Dynamica model, allowing anyone to build and deliver a complete Web-based lesson that uses our models.
We are developing online courses for algebra teachers that include a collection of simple software packages called inter-actives that each focus on one key mathematical concept. For instance, the Qualitative Grapher challenges the user to connect motion to a sketch of a graph. The Linear Transformer provides a real-time, two-way connection between symbolic and graphic representations of linear functions. The Piecewise Linear Grapher extends the previous ideas to graphs com-posed of pieces of straight lines. The Function Analyzer relates three representations of linear functions, including one based on area. The Quadratic Grapher allows students to explore the relationship between symbolic and graphic representations of quadratic functions. (See Wednesday’s Lesson9: The Starburst Activity on page 10, and Thursday’s Lesson10: Warming Up to Quadratics with the Parabola Web on page 12.)
Our Center for a Sustainable Future has developed three software packages designed to get students thinking about the future and how they might husband global resources. The What-If Builder is a writing tool for short stories that have many different outcomes, depending on what the reader selects. It both delivers such stories and lets students author and share them. The Community Planner is a simplified spatial modeling and visualization tool that allows students to create a map of a neighborhood, town, or community, and analyze the map based on indicators that they can help define. The Ecological Footprint Calculator estimates how much land is needed to sustain the user’s lifestyle and how many earths would be required if everyone had the same consumption patterns. Our database includes over 60 tested activities related to sustainable education for grades K-12, many of which use this software. (See Friday’s Lesson11: Using the What-If Builder on page 14.)
In addition to the software showcased in the following five lessons, we have developed other software packages and associated student materials that you can access from the Software Download Center.
BioLogica is a model of genetics built on various inheritance patterns at the level of molecules, genes, and individuals. Growing out of a decade-plus research program, many know the software by its earlier name: GenScope. Students can learn from open-ended exploration of the model or by working through a series of scaffolded learning activities.
Dynamica is a model of classical Newtonian mechanics in two dimensions. Inspired by ThinkerToys, a popular package that ran only on the Commodore 64, this modern version is perfect for introducing vectors, kinematics, and dynamics in physical science and beginning physics courses.
VideoPaper Builder2 is a tool jointly developed with TERC for the development of multimedia video case studies of teaching. A VideoPaper consists of video, captions, a narrative about the video, and artifacts, such as lesson plans and student work. VideoPaper Builder simplifies the work of synchronizing and indexing the various elements. The software links various models, generates menus, framesets and slide shows, and organizes the imported files as an HTML document viewable in a web browser. The resulting VideoPapers are a great way to stimulate thoughtful discussion about teaching and learning. VideoPaper Builder3, which will include new features and a simpler user interface, will be available soon.
We are currently creating additional applications to extend the utility of our growing collection of software. For instance, we already have a wonderful program for probes and sensors called CCProbe. It collects real-time data from a variety of sensors and runs on handheld computers as well as full-sized ones. Unfortunately, CCProbe only works with archaic hardware we created for a past project. We are expanding the capacity of CCProbe and interfacing it with a number of commercial probeware packages.
We are adding random mutations and a population level with environmental pressures to BioLogica and linking this to the Molecular Workbench. The result will be a mechanistic model of molecular evolution forced by the environment.
We are also experimenting with using inexpensive Webcams to capture images and then processing those images to track automatically a moving object. Like the motion detector, this will give real-time data, but for two-dimensional motion, and the equipment will be less expensive.
All of our software is copyrighted under one
of the open source licenses. This means that anyone can have access
to the source code and make changes to it. We believe that open
source is a strategy for long-term support of this software.
Because the majority of our work is grant-supported, when the grant
runs out, our ability to support the software ends. But when a
community of educators uses the software, it is in the interest of
all members of the community to maintain and improve it. Become
part of the community by using this free, high quality software,
and enjoy the lessons in this newsletter! 
For the more technical, our Pedagogica programming environment supports the scripting of Java-based applications, such as BioLogica or Dynamica. The authoring tool includes a graphic interface for specifying screen layouts, and a simple node-and-arc interface for navigating the scripts. Pedagogica also supplies a run-time environment that allows the scripts to communicate with the applications and a logging manager that keeps track of students' interactions with the software.
Links
Document Location: http://www.highwired.net/publications/newsletter/2004-fall/learning_resources.html
Last Updated: 10/25/2005
Copyright © 2008, The Concord Consortium. All rights reserved.