Modeling and Simulation
Featured Modeling and Simulation Activities
Atomic Structure
Explore ion formation, isotopes, and electron orbital placement using interactive models of atomic structure.
Atoms and Conservation of Energy
How does the Law of Conservation of Energy (the First Law of Thermodynamics) apply to atoms?
Catalysts
Explore the effects of homogeneous catalysts.
Cellular Respiration
Explore how your body converts the chemical energy of glucose into the chemical energy of ATP.
Changes in the Environment
Students learn that different species can arise from a common ancestor if different groups have different selection pressures.
Chemical Bonds
Explore the different kinds of chemical bonds that can form, ranging from non-polar covalent to ionic.
Comparing Motion to Trajectory with the Qualitative Grapher
Gain insight into the difficulties students face in learning to interpret graphs
Competition
Use a model to study the effect of a consumer (rabbits) on two species of producers (grass and weeds).
Conflicting Selection Pressures
Observe how heredity and natural selection allow a population to adapt to a changing environment by making favorable mutations more common and unfavorable mutations less common.
Describing Velocity
Learn about velocity-time graphs and their connection to corresponding position-time graphs, and determine velocity during different intervals.
Diffusion
Investigate how the random motion and collisions of particles results in diffusion.
Diffusion, Osmosis and Active Transport
Explore how water and ions can diffuse both passively and actively through cell membranes.
DNA to Protein
Explore what DNA is and how proteins are synthesized from the genetic information stored in it.
Earthquakes Around the World
In this activity you will use a computer model to investigate earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Electric Current
Explore the relationships between voltage, current, and resistance that make up Ohm's Law using molecular models of circuits.
Electrons in Atoms and Molecules
The interactions of electrons with matter are central to many technologies from transistors, diodes, and smoke detectors to sophisticated imaging, lasers, and quantum computing.
Electrostatics
Discover how atoms can be charged, and manipulate charge and distance to examine Coulomb's Law.
Excited States and Photons
Investigate how atoms can be excited to give off radiation.
Experiment with Ecosystems
This open-ended series of models allows students to experiment with virtual ecosystems and test their hypotheses about producer/consumer and predator/prey relationships.
Gas Laws
Explore the interrelationships of pressure, temperature, and volume with atomic models of Boyle's Law, Charles's Law, Gay-Lussac's Law, and Avogadro's Law.
Greenhouse Gases
Use a computer model to explore how the earth's atmosphere affects the energy balance between incoming and outgoing radiation.
Heat and Light from Electricity
How does energy change from one form to another?
How Electrons Move
Discover the forces affecting the movement of electrons, including electric and magnetic fields.
How Fast Am I Moving?
Investigate the relationship between slope and velocity on a position-time graph.
How Loud, How High?
Explore the frequency, wavelength, amplitude and velocity of sound waves.
Intermolecular Attractions
Explore how London dispersion attraction and dipole-dipole interactions explain the different boiling points of materials and apply that reasoning to DNA, antibodies, and gecko feet.
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
Discover the quantum nature of electrons including their wave nature, tunneling abilities, and their bound and excited states.
Is There Life in Space?
Explore the question: Can there be life outside of Earth?
Launching a Satellite
Study how to fire something into space.
Leaf Photosynthesis
This NetLogo model of leaf photosynthesis shows the macroscopic outcome of the reaction.
Making and Breaking Bonds
Explore the association and dissociation of diatomic molecules.
Making Waves
Investigate the creation of different wave shapes.
Maria's Run
Show that the motion of objects can be described by position, direction of motion, and speed.
Meiosis
Learn how meiosis and fertilization shuffle the alleles that offspring inherit.
Meiosis Lab
Explore meiosis and fertilization in dragons in a special lab that gives students the power to recombine alleles.
Melting Ice
What is the temperature of ice as it melts?
Modeling Earth's Climate
Examine climate data and models to explore what we might be able to predict about the Earth's future, and how sure we will be about it.
Modern Genetics
Students breed dragons to learn concepts in modern genetics.
Molecular Geometry
Use models of electron arrangement around atoms to discover how molecules form linear, trigonal planar, and trigonal pyramidal shapes.
Molecular Self-Assembly
Explore how molecules assemble themselves into defined patterns, a process called molecular self-assembly, using a unique set of computational models.
Motion on a Ramp
Study the motion of an object as it moves up and down a ramp.
Motion Toward and Away
Explore different ways of describing motion on a graph.
Mystery Plant Adaptation
Students learn that species are adapted to their environments and that variation in a species can help the species adapt to changes in the environment.
Mystery Plants Mystery
Learn about intraspecific differences and how variation in a population can help a species adapt to living in different environments.
Natural Selection
Students explore how changes in the environment affect both plants and animals in a simple ecosystem.
Our Solar System
Study the planets in our solar system using a computer model.
Phase Change
Explore what happens at a molecular level as substances change phase.
Plants
What do plants eat? This unit explores plants and how they make food.
Population Explosion
Study how populations stay in balance with their environment and respond to various factors such as food supply and predators
Predators and Prey
Students learn that selection pressure can lead to a change in the characteristics of a population.
Probability Clouds
Investigate the probability map of electron orbitals.
Protein Partnering and Function
Build "partnerships" between a protein and small molecules, explore the effects of surface charge, polarity and shape on partnering, and learn the importance of a "good fit" between molecules.
Quantum Tunneling
Explore the unique concept of quantum tunneling and its importance to modern technology.
Radiant Energy Flow
Explore the energy balance between incoming and outgoing radiation on the earth.
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
Use a virtual scanning tunneling microscope to explore the quantum tunneling effect.
Seeing Motion
Investigate simple, straight-line motion.
Semiconductors
Explore the structure and behavior of natural and doped semiconductors.
Solubility
Explore molecular views of solvents and solutes to explain how substances dissolve, the differing solubilities of particular solutes in polar and nonpolar solvents, and the effects of temperature on dissolution rates and saturation.
Solving Linear Equations with the Function Analyzer
Reveal the connection between symbolic and graphic representations of equation solving
Spectroscopy
Explore why excited atoms emit different wavelengths of radiation and learn how to identify atoms based on their unique atomic spectra.
States of Matter
How do the forces and attractions differ between the states of matter?
The Geniverse Lab Demo
Students investigate dragon phenotypes and genotypes, run breeding experiments and solve genetic problems in a virtual lab.
The Virtual Ecosystem
Students learn that organisms with similar needs compete with one another for resources.
The Virtual Field
Learn the life cycle of organisms, variation within a species, and heritability of traits.
The Virtual Greenhouse
Students learn about basic needs of organisms. An organism thrives in specific environments that match its specific needs.
Transistors: The Field Effect
The field effect transistor is the most common type of transistor.
Tree of Life
Zoom down from what we can see with our own eyes to the macromolecules from which they are made
Variations and Adaptations
Students determine how climate can affect ecosystems.
Was Galileo Right?
Explore the effect of gravity on objects of various mass during free fall.
Weaving a Parabola Web with the Quadratic Transformer
Explore how the graph of a quadratic function and its symbolic expression relate to each other
Will There Be Enough Fresh Water?
Explore the question: Will there be enough fresh water for the growing human population?
