Interactive Simulation Environments for Inquiry Astronomy Teaching

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Our project is developing a suite of high-quality JAVA applets that visually simulate a variety of astrophysical phenomena. The simulations are designed for instructional use in 100-level general education college astronomy courses, but will be appropriate for 200-level college courses as well as advanced high school classes. The simulations make use of the JAVA SWING library, which allows construction of superior graphical user interfaces enabling users to conveniently and intuitively interact with simulations. The simulations are accompanied by extensive supporting materials including student guides, instructor guides, background material, and concept tests for peer instruction. These materials allow the simulations to be used in a variety of instructional formats, including computerized laboratories, homework assignments, and in-class demonstrations. Each applet also includes student assessment in the form of a pre-test and a post-test in the web-based assessment engine EDU (marketed by Brownstone Learning). This program allows applets to be incorporated into questions so that assessment can take advantage of applet capabilities. Instructors can request accounts for their students in the EDU system and download statistical reports of their student's assessment results. In addition to informing teachers and educating students, use of this built-in assessment will gather considerable information on how students learn from and interact with simulations. This information can be used in developing future web-based materials. All project materials will be publicly available at no cost on the web and also disseminated by McGraw-Hill Publishing on CD-ROM.