At Michigan Technological University, Dr. John Pilling is using the Macintosh to develop a multimedia tutorial application for use in his Materials Science Education class. Pilling originally developed the program, called PHAUST, several years ago for another platform. Recently, however, he has rewritten the program using THINK Pascal for use on the Macintosh computer.
To date, Pilling has converted three of the five modules to run on the Macintosh. PHAUST is designed to simulate experiments in metallurgy, allowing students to manipulate and observe elements, and the effects of structural changes. Students select a topic, a particular system, or type of system for study, then answer a series of questions about it.
If the student answers incorrectly, the application can switch into a tutorial mode, backtracking to a suitable starting point and posing a series of simpler questions. Using this tutorial method, the application leads students’ thought processes toward the correct answers.
Students can also observe animations or scanned photographs of a system, manipulating changes in composition or temperature as though they were looking at the real material through an optical microscope. The software is set up as a generic package, allowing instructors to create their own phase diagrams and microstructures for the program, then incorporate them into its database.
Students use PHAUST as a self-paced tutorial in the school’s lab, which is equipped with Macintosh IIsi computers. When completed, the application will allow users to experiment with various alloys of 104 elements. Future plans include incorporating QuickTime movies into the software, and allow students or instructors to play back structure changes as animated “QuickTime movies.” Because of the immense volume of information and visual material needed for the project, Pilling hopes eventually to distribute the completed version of PHAUST on CD-ROM.
For information, contact Dr. John Pilling, 1400 Townsend Dr., Houghton, MI 49931-1295; (906) 487-1885, Internet: drjohn@mtu.edu
