Testing Science and Math Simulations
My observations of "Buidling Pangaea":
I. Goal of the Simulation "Building Pangaea": In this simulation students try to fit Earth's landmasses tohether using evidence from fossils, rocks and glaciers.
II. Personal Reactions: The theme of the simulation is appealing to me, because it is intersting to know how the earth contintents were once joined.
III. Ease of Use: This simulation is easy to use, because students are provided with evidence in form of fossils, rocks and glacieres. These will help in doing the puzzle. And whenever the student feels frustrated, he can check the anser.
Students are also provided with lesson material, this will guide them step-by-step through the simulation.
III. Educational Value: Knowing that the earth contintents were once joined and trying to fit the pieces together to form the whole picture will add more to the knowledge level of the students.
To get the utmost results from the simulation, students are given five assessment question, which answers they can check by themselves.
IV. Age/Developmentally Appropriateness: Evidence from fossils, rocks and glaciers make the puzzle not only interesting, but also to some extent easy. Students can always check their answers.
How does "Building Pagaea" fit into my thematic unit:
In the era of globalization borders arn't important. If this is true, then the earth's contintents should be again joined! Seeing the picture in this gizmo will help students better imagine how the world can be one day unified!
I. Goal of the Simulation "Building Pangaea": In this simulation students try to fit Earth's landmasses tohether using evidence from fossils, rocks and glaciers.
II. Personal Reactions: The theme of the simulation is appealing to me, because it is intersting to know how the earth contintents were once joined.
III. Ease of Use: This simulation is easy to use, because students are provided with evidence in form of fossils, rocks and glacieres. These will help in doing the puzzle. And whenever the student feels frustrated, he can check the anser.
Students are also provided with lesson material, this will guide them step-by-step through the simulation.
III. Educational Value: Knowing that the earth contintents were once joined and trying to fit the pieces together to form the whole picture will add more to the knowledge level of the students.
To get the utmost results from the simulation, students are given five assessment question, which answers they can check by themselves.
IV. Age/Developmentally Appropriateness: Evidence from fossils, rocks and glaciers make the puzzle not only interesting, but also to some extent easy. Students can always check their answers.
How does "Building Pagaea" fit into my thematic unit:
In the era of globalization borders arn't important. If this is true, then the earth's contintents should be again joined! Seeing the picture in this gizmo will help students better imagine how the world can be one day unified!
My observations of "Disease Spread":
I. Description of the Simulation "Disease Spread": This simulations shows the methods by which diseases can be spread.
II. Personal Reactions: The theme of the simulation is appealing to me, because it is important to know how diseases are spread. The teacher guide included in the simulations gives a suggested lesson sequence.
III. Ease of Use: This simulation is easy to use, because students can easily trace the effect of a specific method of transmission on any number of people. Changing the method of transmission will of course affect other variables, such as the number of people infected with the disease.
III. Educational Value: This simulation will analyze the factors affecting the spread of the diseases. In addition to this, students will also know how the spread of diseases can be slowed.
IV. Age/Developmentally Appropriateness: This simulation is age appropriate. Nour only serious but also appealing
How does "Disease Spread fit into my thematic unit:
In the era of globalization borders arn't important. If this is true, then the earth's contintents should be again joined! Seeing the picture in this gizmo will help students better imagine how the world can be one day unified!
I. Description of the Simulation "Disease Spread": This simulations shows the methods by which diseases can be spread.
II. Personal Reactions: The theme of the simulation is appealing to me, because it is important to know how diseases are spread. The teacher guide included in the simulations gives a suggested lesson sequence.
III. Ease of Use: This simulation is easy to use, because students can easily trace the effect of a specific method of transmission on any number of people. Changing the method of transmission will of course affect other variables, such as the number of people infected with the disease.
III. Educational Value: This simulation will analyze the factors affecting the spread of the diseases. In addition to this, students will also know how the spread of diseases can be slowed.
IV. Age/Developmentally Appropriateness: This simulation is age appropriate. Nour only serious but also appealing
How does "Disease Spread fit into my thematic unit:
In the era of globalization borders arn't important. If this is true, then the earth's contintents should be again joined! Seeing the picture in this gizmo will help students better imagine how the world can be one day unified!
3. My observations of FOSSweb - Pebbles, Sand and Silt
I. Description of the Simulation "FOSSweb - Pebbles, Sand and Silt": This simulation is about the earth materials and how they are used around us.
Personal Reactions: The simulation is not only educative but also entertaining.
The outlook of the simulation is nice: it has bright colours and nice animations
III. Ease of Use: This simulation is presented in a very easy and clear way, this what make it easy to use.
III. Educational Value: The website www.fossweb.com covers many areas that are closely related to our life, such as animals, plants, weather, earth materials.
Students can deepen their knowledge about the subject by going to "ask the scientist"
The subject of the simulation is then covered in form of questions and their answers.
The simulation has also a glossary, that includes explanation of the difficuilt words.
IV. Age/Developmentally Appropriateness: This simulation is age appropriate.
How does "Fossweb - Pebbles, Sand and Silt" fit into my thematic unit:
In the era of globalization trade between countries increased. This increase lead to more exploitation of the natural resources which made them scarce. I think students should know what are those materials and how they are used.
I. Description of the Simulation "FOSSweb - Pebbles, Sand and Silt": This simulation is about the earth materials and how they are used around us.
Personal Reactions: The simulation is not only educative but also entertaining.
The outlook of the simulation is nice: it has bright colours and nice animations
III. Ease of Use: This simulation is presented in a very easy and clear way, this what make it easy to use.
III. Educational Value: The website www.fossweb.com covers many areas that are closely related to our life, such as animals, plants, weather, earth materials.
Students can deepen their knowledge about the subject by going to "ask the scientist"
The subject of the simulation is then covered in form of questions and their answers.
The simulation has also a glossary, that includes explanation of the difficuilt words.
IV. Age/Developmentally Appropriateness: This simulation is age appropriate.
How does "Fossweb - Pebbles, Sand and Silt" fit into my thematic unit:
In the era of globalization trade between countries increased. This increase lead to more exploitation of the natural resources which made them scarce. I think students should know what are those materials and how they are used.
Description of "Percent and Proportions Gizmo": This stimulation aims at enabling students to interpret values of percents by illustrating them using a scale.
Ease of Use: I find this stimulation is very easy to use. All what the student has to do is just giving the value of the whole number and the value of percents. The result is then illustrated using a scale.
Personal Reaction: One of the reasons why I chose the simulation is its outlook. Using red and blue together to illustrate the value of the percent compared to the whole number makes the difference very clear to the user.
Educational Value: This simulation helps students see how much a percent is from its whole value. I find percents very important because many numbers in our daily life are expressed in percents. The percent value is then given also in an equation form.
Age/Developmentally appropriate: It is age appropriate, because all the student does is just giving the values of the percent and the whole number.
How can this stimulation fit in my thematic unit?
Most of the vlaues are published in percents, for example rate of unemployment. Students should be able to interpret these values, this will help them better understand many figures that are very important indicator of the status quo.
Ease of Use: I find this stimulation is very easy to use. All what the student has to do is just giving the value of the whole number and the value of percents. The result is then illustrated using a scale.
Personal Reaction: One of the reasons why I chose the simulation is its outlook. Using red and blue together to illustrate the value of the percent compared to the whole number makes the difference very clear to the user.
Educational Value: This simulation helps students see how much a percent is from its whole value. I find percents very important because many numbers in our daily life are expressed in percents. The percent value is then given also in an equation form.
Age/Developmentally appropriate: It is age appropriate, because all the student does is just giving the values of the percent and the whole number.
How can this stimulation fit in my thematic unit?
Most of the vlaues are published in percents, for example rate of unemployment. Students should be able to interpret these values, this will help them better understand many figures that are very important indicator of the status quo.
