Algodoo
Sandbox tool enables engaged, conceptual physics inquiry
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Algodoo
Pros: Clean interface, flexible controls, and helpful tutorials.
Cons: Some text-heavy tutorials and lessons might leave some kids baffled.
Bottom Line: A robust, free pedagogical tool that's like a digital workbench where kids build and apply conceptual science knowledge.
Think of Algodoo as a way for both teachers and students to create, share, and remix interactives, virtual experiments, lessons, and demos that build conceptual understanding of physics. Use Algodoo as an assessment tool: Ask students to model their learning by designing models, experiments, or games that demonstrate what they've learned.
Since users can share their creations and lessons, teachers can also publish their work and their students' work, helping a larger global community and showing students how to participate responsibly online. Algodoo can also be a good brainstorming and testing tool; students can design models aimed at solving larger real-world problems, or they can design them as safe and cheap preparatory work for actual builds and projects.
Algodoo is a 2D physics sandbox that lets students build working systems of environments and objects that all have interacting physical characteristics; it's like a blend of a toy box and laboratory, sure to lead to fun and discovery. In addition to the free web version, there's a paid iPad app.
Changing the density of an object, its mass, or the material from which it's made can greatly affect how it works, and students get to see these changes in action, effectively learning through experimentation. Attraction (magnetism), gravity, and light can also be tweaked, and students can create anything from simple scenes that illustrate a principle or two to complex machines like simple computers, sorting machines, and vehicles. While advanced users can do extraordinary things like create playable games, even beginners can have a blast playing around with just a few objects and settings to see how things like density or refraction work.
It's terrific for teaching basic physics, since it removes some of the complexity and confusion of 3D, and it offers useful tutorials for new users. Less computer-savvy students don't have to worry about awkward camera angles or other 3D snags, making it easier for them to control and set up simple experiments. Since users can create and share specific lessons, it's also great for classroom teachers who want to prepare virtual demos that students learn from and remix in school or at home.
Algodoo is an engaging and supportive primer in basic physics that helps learners discover and toy with the logic behind everyday forces like inertia, momentum, and reflection. The number of variables users can control is impressive, meaning students from novice to experienced can always find new things to build and test.
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3-D Mental Modelling? Algodoo is for you!
Algodoo is a great tool for learners to enjoy visual representations of physics in motion. Similarly, like many sandbox simulations that allows the users to experiment different concepts of physics, its interface is friendly for any learner using this application to develop 2-D models of basic to advanced concepts. With the given tutorials for learners to use the basics of Algodoo is provided for the student, it becomes the scaffolding step for creating more complex demonstrations and models for the properties of physics to take place.
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