Interactive Gravity website

Franck Belemkoabga, Gyalpo Dongo, Ariel Mobius

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What we’ll be discussing Today

abstract

Introduction/Background

final Product

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Methods/Design

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Abstract

Interactive astronomy visualizations are an efficient, effective, and fun way for children to learn basic physics and get intuition for how the world works.

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Our website has three components:

1. Gravity on Earth
2. Leaving Earth
3. Gravity in space

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The website is self-contained and students need no prior knowledge before working through it!

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Background and Introduction

Passionate about astronomy

Wanted to make a difference

Noticed a gap in the market for gravity explorations for younger kids

Children learn best through trial and error

Physical Principles used in our project:

steps to make the website

1. Create vision for website (LOTS of drawings)
2. Write up website content
3. Create visualizations
1. Vpython
2. Javascript/HTML
4. Create HTML front-end of website
5. Make website public
6. Add on new features

Now we’ll explore the coding… and the final product

HTML, CSS & Javascript

(And Python)

We plan on sharing this website with elementary school teachers

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hopefully it could become part of some teachers’ curriculums

Goals for future Iterations

1. Allowing students to see all their inputted answers on a final, cumulative page
2. Assigning point values to questions and having an automatic grader for quantitative questions
3. Adding a certificate of completion
4. Adding on more simulations
1. Show how escape velocity works (replacing image)
2. Demonstrate Newton’s third law
3. Demonstrate Newton’s first law (replace other image)
5. Add definition boxes

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Ultimate goal: Create companion app that gamefies these concepts

Questions?

We’d also love to hear your ideas for how we can improve the website!