Peer Review

ExploreLearning.com

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Jan 23, 2003 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: ExploreScience.com offers inservice and preservice teachers activities, course
pages, and science news stories. Shockwave? Activities create real-time
correlations between scientific theories and applications that help students
visualize, experiment, and interact with many of the major concepts in science.
Type of Material:: Simulations, animations, and guided discovery are used. Learning objects that
present some of the "big ideas" in science.
Recommended Uses:: Demonstration of simulations, animations, and guided discovery for science
teachers.
Technical Requirements:: Users must have the Shockwave plug-in. Download capability is provided at
http://www.explorescience.com/about/shockerhelp.cfm . Note: At first Shockwave
didn't work on one of the reviewer's Netscape? Communicator 4.61 browser. An
e-mail was sent to ExploreMath.com (the "sister site") and a reply was received
in less than 24 hours (from Raman Pfaff) that indicated what the reviewer's
problem was. ("I would bet that you have different versions of the Shockwave
Plug-in on your two browsers. When you install the plug-in it asks you which
browser you want to install it on, and it seems as if you installed in to the IE
5.5 and not the NS 4.6. ?Shockwave can be downloaded from
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download ? further questions feel free to
drop me a line.") ExploreLearning.com employees are prompt in responding (based
on this situation and one other of a non-technical nature). The plug-in
worked perfectly on the reviewer's Netscape 4.6 browser after following the
guidance of the ExploreLearning technical person. Members must have the free
Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in to view the lesson plans. A link is provided for
this PDF-format reader. Users must register for a free ExploreScience
account.One of the reviewers noted that the system is set up to download
Shockwave automatically, but it took 17 minutes over a phone modem. The
promotional material was loud once the plug-in was installed. (Note:
Installation of plug-ins was blocked on the reviewer's school computers.)
Identify Major Learning Goals:: According to an ExploreScience.com contact (Raman Pfaff, April 2, 2001), science
educators will be able to share teaching ideas and communicate with each other
in ExploreSci.com's discussion forum beginning in the Summer 2001.Lesson
plans will also be available at that time.
Target Student Population:: ExploreScience.com is designed for science teacher education students who want
to use interactive multimedia resources to supplement their instruction of
Building Blocks, Mechanics, Wave Motion, Electricity and Magnetism, Optics,
Astronomy, and Life Sciences. There are also "fun and games" learning
activities; e.g., the Sight vs. Sound Reflexes exercise. The site is also for
middle school to high school level students (or beyond).
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: The material is aimed at learning science concepts and principles. The
individuals using the materials must have the fundamental understanding of
relevant science concepts. The user must have the self-discipline needed to
think and find answers to questions posed in order to learn from these
resources.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: All activities can be approached as "guess until you get it." The activities
are set up as personal challenges that may be easier for those who understand
the science content, but most can also be mastered without much content
knowledge. The best use for the simulations may be to help students who are
learning physics with mathematics to conceptualize the mathematics. It is not
clear why some of these scenarios are presented without the mathematics. These
activities provide superb opportunities for the wise uses of technology to
facilitate the understanding of science concepts. With the proper accompanying
materials (objectives, lesson plans, assessments), these modules have great
promise. For example, as a start, ExploreScience.com also has a few handouts
for teachers to use with these activities (e.g., Density Lab).

The interactivity is intended to help the high school student (and beyond) learn
science concepts. The graphs and illustrations are excellent. All of this
depends on the teacher facilitating the instruction. It would not be advisable
to use these activities as stand-alone lessons. The models that are chosen are
mainly aimed toward physical science. The user must have a basic understanding
of science principles. If used properly, and with guided instruction and
FEEDBACK, the activities can be used to promote critical thinking. Some
teaching applications are better suited for computers than for any other medium.
That may be the case for modules like additive and subtractive colors. The
Life Science modules deal mainly with perception. The computer-based "Reverse
the Field" activity could be used to replace the classic
write-looking-only-in-the-mirror activity often used to introduce the concept of
cognitive development (thus avoiding the need for equipment - mirrors and
bl inds.)

The Real-time Histogram was an enjoyable module where the user gathers data
while clicking the mouse every two seconds. The Shockwave program creates a
histogram while you are clicking. This is also a good mathematics learning
activity.

See-Saw Torque is a very nice exercise for understanding a simple machine. The
user can put several masses on a see-saw in an effort to balance the system.

2D Collisions is another good interactive visual. This activity lets you deal
with 2D elastic/inelastic collisions on a table.

Center of Mass is very good for teaching students about the "balance point."
This activity shows the user where the center of mass is located as he or she
drags small blocks onto a tabletop. The mass of each block is the same.

At the time of this review, credits for the authors of the simulations were not
found. Person(s) creating the learning activity as well as the programmer
should be credited for their contributions to the improvement of science
education.
Concerns:: Unfortunately, the additive and subtractive colors module shows a color mixing
simulation, but the explanatory information needed to understand the science
content is missing. No mention is made of the eye's color receptors. (To
understand this criticism, please read the material at
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/photo2.html#cones to understand what is missing.
Also, note the more comprehensive Java Applet version at
http://nova.ed.uidaho.edu/library/inet_technology/java_applets.asp .)

Regarding the "Reverse the Field" activity, using a mouse that is reversed does
not quite create the empathy for learners one gets when using a pencil looking
in a mirror.

There is a serious concern about the activities with simulated equipment such as
scales and graduated cylinders for calculating density. Teaching students
proportional reasoning by working with density is a struggle for teachers. A
simulation that basically relies on the calculation of density would not achieve
the same conceptual results.

As is the case with any reference, there are a few items that could be improved.
Below are one of the reviewer's comments about the module for Vector Addition:

The module provides a basic graphical look at vector addition. You see the
"head" to "tail" addition of two vectors.

The idea for this module is wonderful. It helps to "see" the magnitude of the
resultant vector and its magnitude. It helps to "see" the dot product of the
two original vectors.

Doing the activity requires considerable dexterity. If the magnitude of the
original vector was less than 30, it was very difficult to change the magnitude
of either of the "addend" vectors.

It would be a significant improvement for the student learning about vector
addition to add some examples (use buttons for each example) of pairs of
orthogonal vectors. One of the properties that should be stressed is that the
dot product of two orthogonal vectors is 0.

Why was "x" and "y" used to indicate the direction of each vector? "i" and "j"
were not used (or even mentioned as another convention)?

It would have been good if the grid marks were not 1 horizontal mark = 20 units.
1 horizontal mark = 1 unit or 1 horizontal mark = 10 units would have been
preferable. For example, on one of the examples the reviewer used a 3-4-5 right
triangle. This module was not effective for that instance.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: This site is valuable to both teachers and students. Teachers who are "rusty"
could use this site to review concepts and principles they once knew, and need
to periodically refresh their understandings. Teachers can also use this to
help present the topics in a variety of ways. Students can use this site after
they have been introduced to new science concepts and principles.

Particularly noteworthy were the following sites:
Sound Beats
Phased array and ultrasound imaging
Fly through of a throat
Orbit simulator
Floating log

ExploreScience.com has excellent graphical illustrations of frequently used
models for teaching important science concepts.
Concerns:: The topics are isolated bits, and though some concepts are linked, the
simulations do not offer materials for a sequential development of understanding
over time. Talk, text and mathematics are needed to supplement learning. Some
of the simulations would be good pieces if imbedded within a well-designed
sequential curriculum, but unless used properly, this resource might distract
learners and teachers from the need for well designed comprehensive and
sequential instruction for building deep understanding over time.

General Comments:

Three suggestions for enhancing this site would be to add a

1. Glossary of science terms.
2. Lesson plan section*.
3. Forum* (discussion area).

Without such these components, it will be up to teachers to make proper use of
these simulations. Thanks go to the authors who make these simulations
available to the public. They have given industrious teachers learning objects
that can be used in well designed lesson plans and assessments.

*Per e-mail communication with Raman Pfaff, April 2, 2001, ExploreScience.com
intends to add a forum and lesson plans similar to what ExploreLearning.com has
for the ExploreMath.com site.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: These are good uses of Shockwave. Shockwave works fast and well even over a slow
phone modem.

Ability to change the values of the independent variable and observe the
resulting changes in the dependent variable is invaluable.

The quick response times provided by employees working on this web site are
commendable. One reviewer sent an e-mail and received a response to a specific
question in approximately 12 hours. A similar experience occurred when
questions and comments were e-mailed to ExploreMath.com, the "sister site."
Personnel are very quick to respond, helpful, and courteous.
Concerns:: The user should be careful not to use this as a stand-alone lesson plan. The
appealing electronic tools could lull the users into thinking that much learning
will take place "automatically." The teacher must provide guided instruction
in order to realize the full potential for these learning objects.

The Shockwave simulations are too large and do not fit within the browser window
on a small monitor. Shoot the Monkey, for example, was meaningless on a small
monitor.

Other Issues and Comments:: At the time of this review, credits for the authors of the simulations were not
found. Person(s) creating the learning activity as well as the programmer
should be credited for their contributions to the improvement of science
education.
Creative Commons: