| Discussion: | All Topics |
| Topic: | Virtual Reality Technology |
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| Subject: | West Point Software |
| Author: | jeuchler |
| Date: | Mar 16 2003 |
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What grade level are you teaching? Also, tell more about West Point
software
I teach 11th grade Algebra 2 & 12th grade Trigonometry.
The Bridge Building project came out of a workshop at a NCTM conference, but we
ended up using it in our Principles of Technology class, which is 11th & 12th
grade. (I'm just not the instructor this year; just a "facilitator.")
Anyhow, the West Point Bridge Building software is a free download (PC only)
where a student studies sample truss bridge designs and then builds one
him/herself, with the cost of the brigde adding up in a sidebar while the bridge
is constructed onscreen. It can then be tested with a nice little animation of
trucks romlling over (or collapsing throough!) the bridge.
The software is available at
http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/
and I used it toward in the introduction to try and build a cable-stayed
bridge under, say, $50,000.
An old page of mine shows some of the resources I used at
http://www.mccanntech.org/teachers/jeuchler/bridge.html
I really feel you can cater this kind of project-based learning to 6th through
12th grade.
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