[IAEP] Physics

[Gary C Martin]

On 30 Jun 2009, at 17:21, Caryl Bigenho wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I sent this yesterday, but it got filtered out by some machine since  
> I didn't send it as a "reply".  So I am sending it again today.
>
> This is the "old science teacher" in me talking...I think the  
> Physics Activity has great potential for getting students interested  
> in Physics and in thinking like scientists.  I watched a 13-year-old  
> girl play with it at the Bozeman LUG meeting last week.  She loved  
> experimenting with the shapes to see what they would do.
>
> How do scientists think and work?  They observe, take notes, make  
> predictions (hypotheses) test them, and repeat.  This program is  
> perfect for that!  We need someone to design some simple experiments  
> tied to curriculum goals that will help students of various levels  
> enjoy "playing scientist" with the Physics Activity as they learn a  
> tiny bit about physics and a lot about thinking like a scientist.

Many thanks for the feedback! :-)

> I haven't played enough to know what all is included in the  
> Activity.  Does it have, for example, the option of changing the  
> "material" an object is "made of"?

In the latest release (Physics-2), no, there is no user-interface for  
trying different materials, though this is on my list of things to  
explore. Keep in mind that (I think) Physics should have as simple a  
user interface as possible, so young kids just play. But, I'll likely  
try a few mock-ups where the current set of buttons have hover  
palettes for additional (advanced) options – like Paint does (just  
click a brush and start painting, hover over the brush button and you  
get some more settings for size and shape).

Currently all objects have the same material settings:

	density=1.0
	restitution=0.16
	friction=0.5

So we have these variables to potentially expose in the UI, or perhaps  
wrap them up into some pre-set materials (rock, rubber, wood, iron,  
type thing)?

Regards,
--Gary