Current simulations in many areas of physics and engineering require high-performance computers and long run times, which tend to make the subjects inaccessible to students. In collaboration with the Department of Physics and the College of Engineering at Cornell University; and the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC) at Syracuse University, we are developing a set of interactive educational modules based on large simulations. Four modules are being developed: fluctuating membranes; fluid dynamics; crack propagation and structural failure; and avalanches. In this paper, we concentrate on our work in membrane physics and quantum gravity [1,2], from which we will produce the fluctuating membranes module.
The educational modules are to be integrated into undergraduate courses, and then into K-12 (ages 4 to 18) curricula. Material is being developed such that it can be used for individual study and in classroom situations. We intend to use the best available technologies. Currently, these include the World Wide Web (Web) and Java, but they may soon include Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). Web technologies are being developed at an extremely rapid pace, so we are continually evaluating new technologies as they emerge.
Before Java became available, the entry-level general-science course `Science for the 21st Century' (offered by the Department of Physics at Syracuse University [3]) used CGI (Common Gateway Interface [4]) scripts and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language [5]) forms to provide interactive Web access to neural-network models [6]. These were enthusiastically received by students and have proved a useful stepping stone to the development of Java applets in the current work. We are also drawing on NPAC's experience in developing Web material for K-12 students in the Living Schoolbook Project [7].
We discuss below our experiences writing simulations in Java, and preliminary studies in building educational modules. To date, evaluation has been by peers alone, and our modules are aimed at the undergraduate level.