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The Flash simulation could have been made simpler by not allowing the starting angle to vary which might help a beginning student focus on just two variables, angle and time. However I prefer the addition of a third variable, the starting angle, because it hopefully forces the student to think about the importance of keeping as many variables as possible constant when doing an experiment. In addition it increases the number of experiments that can be done with this simulation.

Another variation of this simulation could easily include a digital timer triggered by the passing of the bar at a particular location. I decided not to include a digital timer because I wanted the student to fall back on their own ingenuity, recognize that time is an important variable, and realize that the motion is slow enough so that reasonable measurements can be made with the second hand on a watch. I was tempted to not include the hint about using a watch but decided that many students would need some type of hint to get started.

I did not include any text that indicates the intended audience for this learning object or a description of the prior knowledge needed by a student to successfully answer the questions and carry out the data analysis. This is an important design issue for any learning object particularly if it is part of a learning matrix that is designed for students to move through on their own. If however a learning object is embedded by an instructor in a course matrix, then the instructor can place the learning object at an appropriate place in the course matrix and add whatever input path information deemed appropriate for his/her students.

My intent here is to get the student involved quickly in the simulation and focused on observing phenomena rather than reading a long discussion of the physics of the simulation.

Output Path

I have tried to lead the student to other sources of information by suggesting keywords and phrases that could be used in a search engine or index of a textbook.

Most teachers will probably prefer to use their own HTML text.  This can easily be done if the teacher is familiar with Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, or other web publishing software.

Bruce L. Bird 5/17/02

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