Java in the Classroom

By John Lilly, Apple's Educational Object Economy
with idea generation, lots of conceptual help
and some text from Jim Ambach, Netscape



Author's Note: This is a scenario for using Java applets in an educational setting. It was originally published on Apple's Educational Object Economy (EOE) Web site, and reflects the philosophies of our project. We encourage you to visit our Web site and join our growing community.

Karen Forrester teaches 10th grade physics. Tomorrow she is teaching her students about surface area -- and how evaporation is a surface area-related problem.

She recalls a computer simulation she put together last year to demonstrate this concept visually to her students. To create the simulation, Karen used a Java application called uAgentsheets which she downloaded from the Educational Object Economy (EOE) Web site. The uAgentsheets simulation was comprised of ice agents that showed how ice melted when exposed to air and water. By plotting these ice agents on a uAgentsheets worksheet, Karen was able to demonstrate the rate at which ice melts over time.

This year, Karen decides that she wants to add a more quantitative component to the simulation so that the students can relate the rate of the ice melting to a mathematical equation. She decides to create a graph plotting the number of ice agents vs. the number of water agents on the y axis and the passage of time on the x axis. Separate colored lines would then connect the points in order to compare the decrease in number of ice agents to the increase in number of water agents over time. She returns to the object repository where she originally found the uAgentsheets application and searches for a tool which would allow her to graph data from the simulation.

After searching the objects on the EOE site, she finds a Grapher object which inputs (x,y) coordinates and graphs them on a grid. Karen realizes that in order to create the graph, she must run the ice melting simulation, jot down the ice/water ratios as it runs, and manually enter the numbers into the Grapher tool. And, for every variation of the simulation she runs, she must recreate the graph.

Karen wonders if the numbers reflecting the rate of the ice melting can be extracted from the uAgentsheets simulation as it runs and be automatically fed into the Grapher tool. Although she is not a programmer, she knows people in the EOE community who are. She returns to the Web site to track down someone can help her tie the uAgentsheets and Grapher objects together.

Karen decides to contact the creator of uAgentsheets -- Jim Ambach, a Professional Researcher at the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design at the University of Colorado. Fortunately, Jim has provided an email address on the EOE Web site, so she sends him a message explaining her situation.

After receiving Karen's email, Jim contacts her via telephone and they discuss the issue of modifying the uAgentsheets simulation and the Grapher so that data can be exchanged between them. An expert in Java programming, Jim believes that this project would require an hours worth of coding. He offers to make the necessary updates.

Jim downloads the Grapher source from the Web site and creates an application which combines the two objects. He then posts the hybrid application back to the EOE Web site, and sends a message to Karen letting her know where to find it. Karen downloads the new application and is delighted to find that it automatically generates the graph as the ice melting simulation runs.

Karen then completes the feedback loop by posting information back to the EOE site about the success of her lesson and her overall impressions about using Java in the classroom.



Comments: Send your comments about this article to John Lilly - lilly@cs.stanford.edu



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