System dynamics has strong didactic potential of physics education. The use of modeling systems like Stella in the physics classroom creates new opportunities to - accentuate the basic structure of physical theories, - investigate more complex and realistic phenomena, - improve the possibilities for students to bring in their own ideas. Conventional physics instruction is often dominated by a bulk of special equations (gimmicks) for special cases, like s=v.t for linear motions on an air track. System dynamics models help students to realize that the core of physics can be expressed by a limited number of power tools like Newton's laws _p=F._t, which are applicable to a wide range of topics, including process and the graphical modeling language, they can use system dynamics as a tool to solve problems from nearly all domains of physics, starting from the motion of bodies to the decay nuclei. Empirical research carried out by the University of Bremen has documented case studies about the use of STELLA over three years of high school physics courses. A comprehensive selection of modeling examples ranges from the motion of meters over electromagnetic vibrations to Rutherford scattering. Our empirical finding shows a) that using systems dynamics methods is feasible in normal physics classes, and b) that content, methods and results of physics teaching are improved. The paper presents the didactic rationale and selected examples.

This is the whole item.

Date created

• 1994

Type

• Document

Processing Activity

• Processing documentation available at: https://wiki.albany.edu/display/SCA/Processing+Ingested+Digital+Files

License

• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

  
  Contact Us for questions or additional rights.

ITEM CONTEXT

Part of

fe35db792b573af835d96e6eba4759cd

Scope and Contents

Part of

c060552994c1527f70693734935660f1

Scope and Contents

Part of

23d738ba88f8333bc39725f9cb5bd0b8

Scope and Contents

Collection

System Dynamic Society Records

Scope and Contents

Collecting area

• This collection is part of the University Archives