Laurence A. Marschall, PASA, 17 (2), 129.
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The Design Philosophy of the Project
Though they cover a wide range of topics, from Kepler's laws to cosmology, the CLEA exercises have been developed with a unified design philosophy in mind.1) We try not to do with computers that which can be done equally well with real experiments. The best way to learn the constellations, we believe, is to observe outdoors. Exercises using laboratory spectra, or illustrating geometrical optics and telescopes, are best done using real gas discharge tubes, lenses, and mirrors. On the other hand exercises involving spectroscopy or photometry of faint stars, or radio observations of pulsars, can be better presented as simulations.
2) Software is designed with flexible user-defined options that make it useful both for introductory non-science majors and upper-class science students. Default settings, however, are for the introductory students who make up the majority of our users.
3) Student workbooks are provided for introductory non- science students. Learning objectives and goals are stated explicitly in these workbooks, and the exercises are designed to take into account the results of cognitive research in physics learning. (e.g. Arons, 1990).
4) Exercises avoid, as much as possible, rote copying and graphing. They emphasize how data is collected and analyzed, or demonstrate phenomena that can't be examined otherwise.
5) Exercises include instructive "real-life" features, such as detector noise, sky background, and weather interruptions, while avoiding complications that might distract from the principal learning objectives of the lab.
6) Exercises are carefully designed for ease of use and uniformity. Extensive feedback from both students and faculty at other institutions makes the software easy-to-use and highly portable. This adds greatly to development time, but it insures that the materials we produce will have lasting value to a wide range of users.
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Title/Abstract Page: The Universe on a
Previous Section: Project CLEA: Digital simulations
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