1. Energizing High School Science and Math Education with MATLAB Craig Lent Electrical Engineering University of Notre Dame Science and Math Teachers Trinity Schools
2. Trinity MATLAB Project A collaboration between the University of Notre Dame and Trinity Schools. Integrate MATLAB programming into 11th and 12th grade physics and math. Students learn to write MATLAB programs to construct computational models.
3. Learning physics Conceptual Model Physical World Mental Model Computational Model creating understanding represent creating, altering understanding compare Constructivist epistemology
4. Computational model Computational model Nt=201; tfinal=18; x0=100; vx0=18; ax=-9.8; x(1)=x0; vx(1)=vx0; t=linspace(0,tfinal,Nt); for it=1:Nt-1 deltat=t(it+1)-t(it); vx(it+1)=vx(it)+ax*deltat; x(it+1)=x(it)+0.5*(vx(it)+vx(it+1))*deltat; if x(it+1)<0 vx(it+1)=-vx(it+1); end end Conceptual model The computational model must be constructed by the student. “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” -R.P. Feynman
5. Computational model Can include non-ideal effects beyond those accessible to analytic methods. Expresses general relation (e.g. F=ma) more precisely than any single analytic solution. Input parameters can be easily varied and a large class of problems explored through GUI.
6. Computational model realized as GUI tools Computational model Nt=201; tfinal=18; x0=100; vx0=18; ax=-9.8; x(1)=x0; vx(1)=vx0; t=linspace(0,tfinal,Nt); for it=1:Nt-1 deltat=t(it+1)-t(it); vx(it+1)=vx(it)+ax*deltat; x(it+1)=x(it)+0.5*(vx(it)+vx(it+1))*deltat; if x(it+1)<0 vx(it+1)=-vx(it+1); end end GUI Tool: construction visualization parameter variation animation
