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