Re: Teaching

["Jeff Knope" <jknope@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim,

Well, I understand the whiff of skepticism I think I catch.  That's just my 
point.  People don't think of MicroWorlds as having these kinds of 
capabilities.

You may see BricelandGPS program description at 
http://www.asis.com/~jknope/gpsweb5.html.  I should explain that I wrote 
this web page as part of an effort to learn HTML.  This product is not in 
fact for sale at this time.  The Order Forms, along with all the rest of it, 
were practice in creating these types of documents.  However, the program 
does exist, and works exactly as described.

The best I can offer for the AIGenCAD program is the attached screen shot 
fragment.  This screen shot is taken just at the final point of MicroWorlds' 
involvement with the production of this portion of the plans.

The user has told the program (via a dialog) that the building has 1 framed 
floor and 2 slabs, and what their elevations are. He has then input the 
perimeter shapes and sizes of these elements with a MicroWorlds CAD-like 
program designed to allow this.

At that point, MicroWorlds analyzes the geometry with rule-based algorithms 
that find the most economical distribution of piers and girder and joist 
spans, and generates the drawing shown.  The user is invited to make 
adjustments as needed (at this point, the user knows some things about the 
building that MicroWorlds doesn't yet know, such as interior points where 
roof loads are coming down).

When satisfied, the user authorizes MicroWorlds to write a file readable by 
the CAD program.  It is in the CAD program that the dimensioning and noting 
takes place (told to do those things by MicroWorlds).

This program is work under development, but again, it exists and does as I 
describe.  My vision is to be able to produce an entire set of Working 
Drawings and Specifications in this manner.

--Jeff


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jbonnes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mwforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 12:09 PM
Subject: Teaching


> Jeff,
> I read your thread and I am  impressed at what you say you can do with
> Microworlds. I have been using MW to teach math and am
>
> quite impressed at how it forces students to understand the problems they 
> are
> doing. However my colleagues don't seem to get it.
>
> They don't see the my students "solving" a lot of book problems. Instead 
> they
> see my students trying to draw stars in stars or trying
>
> to figure out how to draw a Von Koch snowflake. They say that it seems 
> that they
> are working on the same problems for a long time.
>
> What they don't see is that for all of my students, programming is new to 
> them
> and is a skill, and I would add an important skill, they
>
> need to know to do their projects. It is also valuable for learning 
> mathematics,
> all the new Calculus books I've seen encourage students
>
> to write programs to integrate, use Newton's Method etc.. I had one 
> student who
> for the past 6 weeks has been learning to draw stars
>
> in stars in such a way that the spacing between the stars as well as the 
> size of
> the stars can be varied. The problem is more complex
>
> than you would think at first glance. It involves an understanding of 
> geometry
> and trig as well as some basic algebra. Also, the solution
>
> requires several intermediate results, and this is not typical of most 
> math
> problems that require you only to solve for one answer.
>
> This I think is one of the great strengths of MW in that it allows a 
> student to
> tackle more complex problems in a direct manner. The
>
> use of text boxes to show the output of variables at given stages 
> introduces
> students to troubleshooting techniques, although I do wish
>
> MW had a step function like other API's.
> As for your using MW to do all that you say I would love to see some 
> examples.
> Jim Bonnes
> Liberty School
> Blue Hill, Maine

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