Bob Tinker, Emeritus President of the Concord Consortium, noted, “The creation of probeware represents one of the most valuable contributions of computers to education.” In 1981, Robert Tinker and Stephen Bannasch from the Technical Education Research Center developed the first educational temperature grapher. This software was developed for the Apple II computer and was part […]
I have been “shopping” for a learning theory that can frame the value added by IR visualization to hands-on experiments. Here is a candidate theory.There are four learning pathways to the brain: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. Theory has it…
Scientists have known for a long time that ocean currents affect climate. The big unanswered question is how ocean currents change during the periods of greatest change–from ice ages to periods of global warming. During the Eocene period, 38 million years ago, the Antarctic had a temperate climate. What is now the midwest United States […]
A new study has been published disproving the previous explanation for the end of the Marinoan ice age, also known as “Snowball Earth.” That ice age ended abruptly about 600 million years ago. The debunked explanation stated that methane bubbled up from the oceans and was consumed by microbes, which released carbon dioxide into the […]
An interview with Charles Xie, creator of the Molecular Workbench software.
Molecular Workbench was awarded a Science Prize for Online Resources in Education. SPORE has been established by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to “encourage innovation and excellence in education, as well as to encourage the use of high-quality on-line resources by students, teachers, and the public.”
Springer has just published a new book, Models and Modeling: Cognitive Tools for Scientific Enquiry with a chapter by Charles Xie and Amy Pallant. “The Molecular Workbench Software: An Innovative Dynamic Modeling Tool for Nanonscience Education“ demonstrates how dynamic modeling of nanoscale phenomena based on first principles provides a direct approach to making nanoscience more accessible and teachable in the classroom.
The Science Magazine announced that the Molecular Workbench software has won a SPORE Award. The Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) has been established by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to “encourage innov…
The Earth is getting warmer. In warmer climes, decomposition occurs more quickly. This releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to further warming. But it needn’t get completely out of control–trees (and other plants) can come to the rescue! A recent study in a central Massachusetts forest has shown that increased temperatures do indeed […]
The Journal of Chemical Education selected Concord Consortium’s “IR magician” Dr. Charles Xie’s paper titled “Visualizing Chemistry with Infrared Imaging” as the cover article of the July 2011 issue.