The Design of a Learning Environment in Mechanics : Two Case Studies

Abstract

Two projects of learning environments in mechanics, still in progress, are described. Their approach is quite different. In the first project, the student has to model a physical phenomenon represented by pictures: stroboscopic photographs, series of slides or motion pictures. The software enables data acquisition and processing, and gives choice among different representation spaces. The student should build a plausible model and then confront it with data. This project is clearly based on the analysis of physicists’ activity in the laboratory. The second project aims at concept learning. A major difficulty for students is the understanding of the concept of “force”. In order to overcome this difficulty it seems appropriate to introduce the concept of interaction between two bodies early in the teaching. The software proposes many situations where the student has to describe which bodies interact together. Thus the student builds gradually the concept of interaction by discrimination and generalization. In the latter case, the reference is rather educational psychology.