How to Prevent Free Student Simulation Software from Becoming “Shelfware” 1

[drawoh]

Here is an interesting article from engineering.com...

How to Prevent Free Student Simulation Software from Becoming “Shelfware”

The authors feel that students in high school should be exposed to simulation software. It seems to me that high school students would be shown the equivalent of a magic box that knows the answer to the questions they ask. Is this really a good idea?

--
JHG

 

[GregLocock]

Once upon a time a reasonably sophisticated multi body dynamics program was available as a 2D version, called Working Model 2D. This was absolutely hilarious for designing your own physics lab type experiments with springs, dampers, rolling balls, friction, pendulums and so on, or indeed building Mousetrap game type mechanisms. By restricting it to 2D they got rid of a lot of the UI complexity that plagues 3D stuff. I think that would have been a worthwhile addition to a senior science class, but other than that I am not a huge fan of computers in the classroom. Autodesk made a roughly similar app, but that seems to have gorn to bit heaven as well.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[IRstuff]

apparently, still available:

https://www.design-simulation.com/purchase/educationproducts.php?prod=wm2d

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[GregLocock]

geoblocked!

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[KENAT]

Probably had trouble getting it to work in your reversed gravitational field Greg.

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[IRstuff]

Well, it's bloody expensive, even for the cheapest version, the personal edition, at $345

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[BUGGAR]

That should stimulate those students.

 

[truckandbus]

software's presence in the classroom doesn't guarantee it will carry through to industry if something better comes along. When I came up through school it seemed Lotus 1-2-3, dBase IV, WordPerfect 5 and Harvard Graphics had a lock for productivity software

 

[BUGGAR]

Imagine carrying student loan debt and a number of software license subscriptions as well. Or is the purpose for the student to get a job and tell the company what software to use?

 

[drawoh]

software's presence in the classroom doesn't guarantee it will carry through to industry if something better comes along. When I came up through school it seemed Lotus 1-2-3, dBase IV, WordPerfect 5 and Harvard Graphics had a lock for productivity software

I had a slide rule and a typewriter.

--
JHG

 

[BUGGAR]

You learned cad on a typewriter, too? Stick a drafting lead in that space where the keys strike and roll the platen for vertical lines and slide the carriage for horizontal lines. Circles and diagonals were hard, but adding text was easy.

 

[drawoh]

BUGGAR,

Try 3D modelling on a typewriter.

For that matter, try touch typing on a manual typewriter. My typing rhythm is gone completely. It's back to two finger technique any time I need to use it.

--
JHG

 

[IRstuff]

The changes were never so precipitous that one couldn't adapt. We went from secretaries required to know Wang word processing to engineers using Sprint, Wordstar, and WordPerfect, to mostly not even have official "memorandas." It's certainly well know that the earlier children are exposed to learned software, the quicker they can adapt to changes. Students in high schools can have already learned Java, C++, and Python, in addition to having designed logic circuits, simple ALUs, etc., before they graduate; I knew a bare knowledge of Basic when I graduated. They've already done animations and designed apps.

None of this is a bad thing, per se. In order to stand on the shoulders of giants to make progress, some things do have to be taken at face value. If we all were required to re-derive all the basic theorems in math and science, we'd never get to doing anything related to modern engineering until we were middle-aged.

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[KENAT]

"If we all were required to re-derive all the basic theorems in math and science"

Well certainly wouldn't say all, but in my high school math and then Engineering at university there was an awful lot of deriving equations etc. and at least at uni not that much application.

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[SwinnyGG]

"You learned cad on a typewriter, too? Stick a drafting lead in that space where the keys strike and roll the platen for vertical lines and slide the carriage for horizontal lines. Circles and diagonals were hard, but adding text was easy."

I believe the acronym for that would be 'TAD' as opposed to 'CAD'.

Now that I've heard of this I'm a bit saddened that I was born too late to learn about the wonderful world of Typewriter Aided Design.