The second session I led at the DuPage County Science Institute was on Computational Modeling with VPython.

I tried to explain what computational modeling is and how it is more than just programming. I then encouraged teachers to use computational modeling in their classroom and shared why I think it improves student learning.

We used VPython and the physutils package.

We started with John Burk’s 1-dMotionSimulation.py example. I then asked each teacher to modify the model in some way and observe the results.

I then presented several starting examples that I created for my AP Physics B class and shared how students built upon these examples to solve everything from homework problems to their projectile motion lab practicum.

I left lots of time for teachers to explore these starting examples and help each other and get help from me. I saw teachers unfamiliar with Python create some pretty cool models in very little time.

Here are the slides I used to introduce computational modeling:

Download (PDF, 4.05MB)

Here are the links to the resources that I displayed at the end of the session:

• Georgia Tech PER Group
• my GitHub
• John Burk’s blog
• Integrating Numerical Computation into the Modeling Instruction Curriculum by Caballero, Burk, et al.