This article appeared in the October 1990 issue of The Computing Teacher, Volume 18 Number 2
Junior High School
All teachers experience the request, "Let me do it!" during demonstrations, and students do participate in well prepared. controlled laboratory sessions. They dissolve salt in water, for instance, and the chemistry of solutions is explained on the board. Unfortunately, it is usually forgotten in two days. The students do not need the information in everyday life, and the abstract concept is difficult to remember at this age.
I have found that LogoWriter is the ideal medium in which to learn new science concepts and to work on science projects. Logo Writer adds a new multifaceted dimension. A suggestion like, "Why don't you teach the computer how to do it?" will get the student to create the ionic structure of the salt. Next, the student "programs" water molecules to pull ions out of the crystal lattice, and in so doing gains a deeper understanding of the process of dissociation. Created by the student, the knowledge becomes concrete.
Figure 1. I know that from now on, the students
are self-confident and powerful. They learn and discover
new concepts easily at their own pace, and without
realizing that this is science, mathematics. and
programming. For them, it is just "fun." In addition,
they learn to work together, to help each other, and to
feel proud about themselves. Even marginal students get
involved and spend whatever time is necessary to print
their projects in order to take them home to their
parents. From the very beginning of the school
year, the whole class is involved in creating
mini-projects. The list of topics spans the curriculum
for the year. LogoWriter concepts are introduced as
students progress with their work. LogoWriter booklets,
activity cards, and the Reference Guide are part of the
lab at all times. In addition, while a library of books
and the textbook are the primary sources of scientific
information, magazines like Science Times, TIME, and
National Geographic (just to mention a few), are good
sources of up-to-date information. I also request that my
students buy the Tuesday New York Times, which contains
the Science Times section. They are required to summarize
one article and to include it as part of their Science
Scrapbooks.
Students in groups of two or three pick a specific project. They
write a brief research paper and, where feasible, set up an
experiment (e.g., Electric Circuits, The Water Cycle, The Phases of
the Moon). From their research paper, they create a computer
simulation of the project and write a one-page text.
Students deal with, discuss,
represent, and discover all those phenomena that
otherwise they find difficult to visualize at this age
(e.g., the nuclear fission of U-235, the electrolysis of
water, the evaporation of water, the moving of electrons
through the wires of conductors). Students become experts
who say, "Let me show you how I did it!" or, even better,
"Let me show you how to do it!" The student is now the
expert.
For example. the computer simulation of a water cycle project shows a cross section of the lithosphere with bedrock, the ocean, some distant mountains, and the sun as starting scenery. Dots, representing water molecules, leave the surface of the ocean and rise slowly. Arrows indicate the upward motion of water vapor, and the label "evaporation" states the process. A cloud incorporates all the dots and displays the label "condensation." Shower shapes and arrows show the downward motion of water as "precipitation." The one-page text, delivered in the command center, accompanies the screen simulations (Figure 1).
The best of these 'mini-projects" are put together near the end of the year to create an ongoing, open-ended science dictionary (Adamson, 1989).
After completing the first project, students continue working on more complicated projects in preparation for the school's Science Fair. For a project on electric circuits, students put together batteries, wires, light bulbs, and switches. A Logo Writer program explains with text and screens the operation of the series and parallel circuits. In addition, it shows the electron shape running through the wires, something that cannot be visualized in the traditional "hands on" experiment (Figure 2-top). At the end of the program, the computer introduces itself, asks the viewer's name, and tests the viewer's knowledge of the topic. (Figure 2-bottom). At the Fair, a balloon is ready for the student who answers all questions correctly.
Figure 2. Figure 3.
By the end of November, there is a crew of students willing to work afternoons on larger, more sophisticated projects for the upcoming City-Wide Science Fairs. These students become the new experts and facilitators. Everything done in the lab percolates down to regular morning classes. These students' most successful work is presented at the District Science Fair. These projects consist of an experimental part, as well Logo Writer part that involves interactive programming. They are educational in character and explain and teach a specific topic to students visiting the Fair. All projects follow the scientific process and start with a hypothesis. In 1989, my students worked on two projects: "Endothermic-Exothermic Reactions" and "The Operation of a Nuclear Reactor."
Figure 4 Figure 5
The purpose of the first project was to find out how much energy is released or absorbed when a salt is dissolved in water. The Logo Writer program showed the solution of solids in liquids and the processes of dissociation and hydration (Figure 3). It also showed the setup of the experiment as performed with the Brøderbund Science Tool Kit. "The Operation of a Nuclear Reactor" took advantage of a newly acquired LEGO® TC logo kit. Control rods in a simulated nuclear reactor made of LEGO blocks were lowered and raised via a Logo program. In LogoWriter, students explained nuclear fission, and the operation of nuclear reactors with one or two control rods moving at a time (Figure 4).
The previous year, "Low Energy Emulsification" devised ways of saving up to 50% of thermal and mechanical energy and processing time in the preparation of common emulsion systems. Students prepared a series of emulsions withholding up to 50% of water. Emulsions were checked for pH, viscosity, and quality under the microscope. Students presented all their work and collected data in Logo Writer, including flow charts, diagrams with kettles and moving blades (Figure 5-top), and cooling and heating curves. The most interesting part of the program was created by Juan Arias, who wrote a program to compute in grams any amount of emulsion according to several energy saving formulas (Figure 5-bottom).
Figure 6.
Figure 7. |
"Refuse-To-Energy" is a LogoWriter program written by my students in 1987 that explains the working of an incinerator. The project has full-screen descriptions of the operation of a Refuse-To-Energy plant, including delivery of refuse via trucks, cranes picking up the refuse (Figure 6), combustion chamber operation (Figure 7), spray dry, and fabric filter cleaning operations. In addition, the program computed the amount of refuse produced per day in New York City. The World Trade Center's twin towers were used symbolically as two big garbage pails to illustrate the amount of generated garbage (Figure 8). |
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Figure 8. |
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