Abstract
We describe a recent project that explored the use of interactive computer software for teaching Einstein's special theory of relativity to secondary school studients. Our approach couples results from recent cognitive science research with modern techniques for using computers to help students visualize and experiment with otherwise inaccessible phenomena. One the products of this research is RelLab, a computer-based exploratory tool for constructing “gedanken,” or thought experiments involving physical systems in relative motion. We will describe our efforts in designing and testing this software for affecting change in students' concepts of space and time. Relativity is ideally suited for such a study because understanding it requires a radical reconceptualization of these quantities.
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Advanced Physics from an Elementary Viewpoint, NSF grant MDR-9016417.
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Horwitz, P., Barowy, B. Designing and using open-ended software to promote conceptual change. J Sci Educ Technol 3, 161–185 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01575178
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01575178