CBLIS 2001

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Designing Applets that Foster Constructivist
Teaching and Learning

• CBLIS 2001
• July 2001
• Brno, Czech Republic

Brian Martin The Kings University
College Edmonton, Canada David Austen, Wytze
Brouwer The University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada
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What is MAP?

• A 4 year project involving collaboration of 6
  post-secondary institutions in the province of
  Alberta. MAP is intended to provide high quality
  learning, WWW-deliverable objects for the
  teaching of the first 3 terms of university level
  Physics and scalable to meet the needs of most
  high school curricula

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A closer look at MAP

• Highly modularized collection of learning
  objects including
• over 100 applets and applications
• extensive FLASH animation library
• Video and Lab interfacing via JAVA applications
• student tutorial modules
• extensive interactive questions with attention
  paid to conceptual questions as well as numeric
  response
• Objects can be stand-alone or encapsulated within
  the MAP NAVIGATOR

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Pedagogic Design and Philosophy

• MAP is built on a constructivist learning model
  and all learning objects are designed to
  encourage (demand?) student interactivity
• Concept focussed
• Tutorial modules are usually designed to involve
  a pair of students in conversation but can run
  solo

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Designing Conceptual Applets

• they are designed to address a well-known
  preconception (ie one identified in the research
  literature)
• they are entirely qualitative in both input and
  output
• they allow the student to draw directly on the
  applet the expected outcome and then to compare
  this with the correct result simulated by the
  computer
• the applets are designed to be attractive and
  non-intimidating

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Conceptual Applets...

• 1-Dimensional Vertical Motion (force,
  acceleration, and velocity)
• 1-Dimensional Motion (force, acceleration, and
  velocity)

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Applets that augmentstudent experience...

• 2-Dimensional Motion (vectoral nature of
  acceleration and velocity)

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Applets that Bridge the Transition from
Qualitative to Quantitative

• Circuit Builder

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Applets that Bridge the Transition from
Qualitative to Quantitative

• The Incline

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Applets that Bridge the Transition from
Qualitative to Quantitative

• Accelerating Incline

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Applets that Bridge the Transition from
Qualitative to Quantitative

• Atwoods Pulley

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Sample Map Tutorial

• Car on a banked roadway

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Does MAP Work?

• Efficacy of MAP materials in improving conceptual
  understanding and affecting attitude is the
  principal burden of Mr Guoqiang Zhous doctoral
  work in The Department of Secondary Education,
  University of Alberta
• Force Concept Inventory Test or FCI (Hestenes et
  al 1992, Mazur, 1997) has been administered to 7
  first year classes at the UofA (n 600) divided
  as 4 control groups and 3 treatment groups. All
  three treatment groups demonstrated a
  statistically significant improvement in
  performance on FCI post-tests compared to their
  control group counterparts.
• MAP materials do not appear to be effective in
  changing student attitudes about physics as a
  discipline.

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Technical Info...

• Applets run under JAVA 1.3.1- Sun Plugin (PC,
  LINUX) or OSX (Mac)
• Require JMF 2.1.1 (PC and LINUX only) for
  VideoLab
• Applet design makes extensive use of libraries
  (approx. 1 Meg initial download, individual
  applets typically 50K - 100 K)
• Applets are signed using THAWTE certificates and
  can access required peripherals (printers, files
  etc)
• Visit us at
• http//www.kingsu.ab.ca/brian/meltp/edit_content/
  explainit/map_menu.html
• http//vega.phys.ualberta.ca/alphy/meltp/

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Acknowledgments...

• Project MAP Executive Directors David Austen,
  Wytze Brouwer, Hans Laue, Brian Martin
• Project Associates Terry Singleton, Peter Wright
• Programmers (MAP_North)
• Nathan Laan, Dave Ooms, Rob McQuarrie, Tyler
  Luchko, Mike Schuurman, Brian Martin
• FLASH Travis Whyte, Leah Martin
• HTML Jennifer Rea

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Basic Constructivist Tenets

• Successful science teaching must develop
  strategies and tools that acknowledge the
  existence of powerful, preexistent frameworks of
  ideas which students bring to bear on the ideas
  that we teach (see, for example Driver and
  Oldham, 1986, Berg and Brouwer 1991)
• Constructivist teaching provides students with
  sufficient experiences to interact with their
  held beliefs and to enable students to construct
  their own understandings of concepts and ideas.