[Etoys] Upcoming talk

[Edward Cherlin]

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Joe Apuzzo <japuzzo at gmail.com> wrote:
> I will be giving a talk this coming Wednesday (www.mhvlug.org)
> http://news.squeak.org/2008/05/24/new-yorkers-chance-to-see-squeak-based-education-tools/
>
> I'm working up my slides and I will be using the latest squeakland/etoys
> build to demo.
> I've done the "car" demo ( mastered that) and also can demo the "car on
> a track".
> But does anyone have any suggestions for math and science? aka something
> that
> I can build on the fly and show a topic that a Middle School or High
> School teacher
> would do in class?

Alan Kay did an excellent demo at the OLPC Country Workshop recently.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Presentations/May_2008_Country_Workshop

He talked about teaching 10-year olds calculus and physics, among other things.

Demonstrate constant acceleration with the car leaving a dot before
each time interval. Measure or calculate distances traveled, in
addition to looking at the visual pattern. (The distances traveled in
successive intervals are as successive odd numbers, and total distance
is proportional to the square of the time.) Then video a ball dropping
from the roof of the school, select frames at regular intervals, and
compare the dot sequence to the one the car generated. Measure to get
the local acceleration due to gravity, about 10 m/s/s.

Later, when you introduce conic sections, you can ask children what
shape the streams from water fountains make. It has always puzzled me
that the Greeks after Apollonius never noticed this, or at least never
wrote it down if they did. It took until Galileo to make this
discovery, which is obvious to children with minimal preparation as
soon as their attention is directed to it.

> Thanks
>
> Joe Apuzzo
> Gnu_Joe
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-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay