Chapter 7: Innovations in Computer-Based Simulations to Promote Science Learning: Fernand Brunschwig SUNY Empire State College (Emeritus) Teachers College, Columbia University

This chapter focuses on our work creating and testing new computer-based simulations for science instruction. Our simulations, developed using Mathematica, employ dynamic visualization to help students “see” and mentally manipulate the images and models used by scientists in problem solving. Our simulations are based on everyday phenomena and provide close linkage to the key working, analog, and mathematical models required for successful problem solving. We conducted a field test of one of the simulations that has yielded information about the impact on prospective teachers, newly-hired teachers, and their students. We have also extracted from our experience a variety of potentially useful ideas about the characteristics of effective simulations, strategies for development of simulations, and other matters likely to be of interest to science teachers, researchers, and developers of instructional materials.