Monday’s Lesson

Teachable Moments with Teachable Applets

By Eric Brown-Muñoz

Great educational “gadgets” beg to be explored. When I was teaching, I had a set of iron puzzles on my desk that both students and fellow teachers found impossible to resist. The most compelling gadgets are simple objects that have profound ideas behind them; they spark curiosity and often lead to “teachable moments.”

Highly interactive software models can provide the same “feel” and learning opportunities. Computers provide engaging models that are difficult, if not impossible, to set up in real life. Learners of all ages are naturally drawn to short, discrete programs that are fun to play with. Software programs thus greatly extend the range of things that can be learned by “gadgets.”

The challenge is to design activities using computer-based models that lead to successful learning experiences. For example, scientific games that involve setting the velocity and elevation of a cannon to hit a target are very popular, but not very effective. Students solve the problem by tweaking variables to find the correct answer, but they are not challenged to understand the underlying physics or mathematics.

Teachable Applets

I define a “teachable applet” as a focused computer program that is both fun and educational. Teachable applets have three things in common:

They are simple to use.
They provide a challenge that is interesting and relevant.
They have one profound idea at their core.

Teachable applets exist to present one concept in a way that is both powerful and simple. The most effective applets are those you use once or twice to help master a concept, and then throw away.

The best applet captures the imagination of the students. It shows the deep ideas in ways that are inherently interesting and provoke curiosity. If the interface is simple, the technology and the procedures are transparent and the concepts take center stage.

I judge the best applets with a fairly demanding standard: the interest of my nine-year-old son. I give him an applet and a few minutes of help. If he is still exploring it 30 minutes later, the applet passes the test.

The Shodor Foundation and the Freudenthal Institute each have collections of applets well worth exploration. Start with the following (or try them out on your son, daughter, niece, nephew, friend, or student).

The Lathe interface is wonderfully simple, though the applet illustrates a fairly complex concept.

Lathe

The Lathe applet from the Freudenthal Institute is an engine for “revolution.” For the student, it’s an interesting way to make “cool” three-dimensional objects.

Point your browser to: http://www.fi.uu.nl/wisweb/welcome_en.html

Click the applets button on the left, and select Lathe from the list.

You are presented with three controls: a grid to draw on (half is grayed out), and two buttons — “One step back” and “Clear.”

Click points on the grid to create a two-dimensional segmented line. The applet draws the related three-dimensional object in the main display window (this is a solid of revolution). Use your computer mouse to click or twist the resulting 3D object for easier viewing.

The idea behind the applet is profound: the two-dimensional diagram in the grid is half of a cross-section.

So how is it educational?

My son saw this applet on my computer as I was reviewing it. Immediately, he wanted to play with it. A good first sign!

His first inclination was to click in the box to see what came up. After playing for a while, he made several things that appeared to him like “airplane jet engines.” He was exploring on his own, but I knew a challenge would help him figure out what was happening.

“Miguel, can you make a spear?” I asked. He started out drawing a spear in the middle of the grid. The result was something shaped oddly like an airplane jet engine.

I continued, “let’s start with the stick. Can you make a thin stick?” Miguel soon discovered that he wanted a horizontal line. Then he figured out that the lower the line, the thinner the 3D stick.

That was all of the prompting my son needed. After several minutes, he figured out that the bottom of the grid mapped to the center of the object. The rest was easy. He soon had a pretty convincing spear with a nice sharp point.

Plop It!

The Shodor Statistics applet ‘Plop It!’ has the same advantages: it is engaging and focuses on one concept. It is designed to teach basic statistics.

Point your browser to: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/

Look at all the great software and select Plop It!

This applet presents a histogram. Click inside the graph, and an object (represented as a blue box) falls into one of the columns. This is equivalent to adding a data point to a sample.

Plop It! is a simple tool that is engaged, focused, and effective.

This type of applet is effective because it allows the student to focus on only one thing. The applet performs the calculations, freeing the student to think about what the calculations mean. (Of course, the mechanical act of calculating the average is important, and the student should have experience making this calculation. But students can do these exercises elsewhere.) Here, the student can wrestle with the more profound ideas about the meanings of “mean,” “median,” and “mode.”

There are several ways to use this applet. For example, you can use this in a classroom discussion to introduce the three Ms (mean, median, mode).

Once students are familiar with the concepts and the tool, present a challenge. For example, “create a set of 15 items that has a mode of 6 and a median of 6, but a mean of 8.” This is not an easy task. Students will have to understand what these terms mean on a fairly deep level to attack this problem. This elegant applet allows students to focus exclusively on the important math concepts.

Using Applets in the Classroom

Applets like Plop It! make great classroom demonstrations. With a projector, you can demonstrate the computer model and use it to spark classroom discussion.

Applets also are great for small group or individual work. The key is to give clear tasks with objectives that students can measure themselves. For example, if the task is to find factors, the applet should make it clear when the students have the correct answer.

When the applet and the task are interesting and relevant, the computer model naturally captivates students. The teacher then has the opportunity to walk around the classroom to help, prompt students with a question, or present them with new challenges. Students are engaged. And they’re learning.

Eric Brown-Muñoz (ebrownmunoz@yahoo.com) is an independent Java programmer who is developing interactive materials for teachers.

Article Links & Notes

Shodor Foundation — http://www.shodor.org

Freudenthal Institute — http://www.fi.uu.nl

The projects described in this newsletter are supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Noyce Foundation and others. All opinions, findings, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies. Mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations does not imply endorsement.

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