The Bicycle in Science, Technology and Culture A Series of International Workshops Milton Keynes, United Kingdom May 15-16, 1995
These note were taken by Dean Zollman during the workshop. They should reflect the presentations and discussions.Joel Greeenberg - Instructional Media at the Open University
Day 2
Frits Gravenberch - Dutch Efforts
Day 1.
BOU Training Centre
Stony Straford, Milton Keynes, UK
February 2, 1998
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Joel Greeenberg - Instructional Media at the Open University
Used a Toolbook 1.5 presentation. Put it on CD-ROM
Gave a general overview multimedia technology use at the OU
Homer and Poetry course
First multimedia project in OU
Student is to combine archeology and poetry
see relations between the two
Now testing it with students who have previously taken the course
About 100 MB
Discussion of student access to machines
Not all students have machines
Long term problem at OU
80% have VCRs
Had same problem when they moved from black and white to color
Students did not have the equipment
Of course that changed quickly
Now some students get free computers but some fall in the cracks between qualifying for
free machines and being able to afford to buy them.
Lots of students will have full multimedia computers soon but probably not all
Recent survey 65% of European homes will have Windows machines by the end of the decade.
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Bob Lambourne - Flexible Learning Approaches to Physics
Physics Department
Traditional media - primarily print
FLAP project
Flexible Learning Approach to Physics -- he is project director
Consortium of universities
Lots of revision in the school education
test are being revised
students taking a wider range of A-levels
Exams introduced aimed toward vocational -- GNPQ
GNPQ will become acceptable for entrance in to the University
Entrance exams at Universities -- scores have been declining
OU courses are not very useful for other universities
recently tried to convert OU stuff to be used in other UK physics department
set up consortium
Funding agencies provided funds to develop technology
FLAP and SToMP both funded
FLAP will use some print; SToMP will use none
FLAP uses
Brief review course for well qualified students who are ill-prepared in a few areas
e.g. Oxford students who do not know E & M
Conversion course foe students with non A-Level qualifications
U's cannot afford to turn away students
Foundation course which covers the crucial part of the A-level course
Provide the substantial part of a first year course (need to add tutorials workshops and laboratory sessions.
Reference material sources to be used through out undergraduate studies.
Typical OU materials
Coverage just what you would expect it to be
Physics strand
Math strand
Has a quantum physics which leads up to wave packets
Quantum Physics 2 is the real thing with "lots of Greek letters etc."
In the physics strand the math is soft pedaled.
derivatives used as a slope
physics is fueling the math
Materials
photocopy master -- monochrome about 2000 pages
1 student guide
1 handbook
1 index
83 modules
(not a course but a resource to allow people to assemble courses)
8 C 60 audio cassettes
4 E60 video tapes draws on OU video
about 10 PC 3.5 floppy discs
containing
1 tutor guide question bank
1 relational glossary
1 CAL package based on existing OU stuff
1 CAT - FLAP student questions to do self assessment
about 1500 pages of print including
1 browsing copy of modules
1 hard copy of glossary
1 hard copy of Tutor Guide
Modules are not interrelated.
students are asked if they know prerequisites not if they have studied a particular module
each module is independent of others as much as possible.
SToMP
covering same material
all software
have diverted from no paper approach
students could not live with it
will print out contents of the software package
he worries about what the printed materials will be because they were not developed as
print materials
Next project is likely to be a problems solving
Summer school students in calculus use a bicycle wheel to do Harmonic Motion including
large oscillations
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Bob McCormick - Technology Education in the UK
In UK technology education means that students design and make things
Different from information technology
Closer to old industrial arts.
National curriculum
rather rigid
legally binding
Design and technology
part of the National curriculum
Basic programs of study
Activities
design & make products
focus on practical task
investigate & evaluate products
new take things apart
Design skills
design briefs
specifications
generate ideas
modeling
Skills
tools and materials
Quality control and assessment
work scheduling
simulated manufacturing
Knowledge & understanding
materials & components
control & systems
structures
kids don't take things apart on their own so put it in the curriculum
products and applications
quality
health & safety
Case studies
kits
electronic badge
mobile
moisture detector
health snack bar
bag - textiles
money box
aid for disabled child
Very little connections with science
Old days physics teacher taught technology
no longer true
result: not much science in the tech curriculum
teachers and students have difficult time transferring knowledge from science class
Information Technology
Latest survey of what available
pupils/computer
primary 18:1
secondary 10:1
types of machines
still heavy on Acorn and Research Machines about 60%
Mac only 2-3%
PC 3% in primary; 14% secondary
CD-ROM
#/school = primary 0.1; secondary 2.7
Use of software
Technology uses much more than others
word processing is most common use
then data handling, control & measurement, CAD, simulation, drill & practice
very little programming taught
All figures are very crude
Available in technology
spreadsheets for specialized use
e.g. Projects costs
teachers seldom build their own spreadsheets
databases
2D & 3D CAD
general purpose programs
primarily used for engineering drawing
tend to spend more time learning the software than using it
2D & 3D specialized drawing programs
1 or 2 CD-ROMs
computer as a modeling tool is almost absent from the technology curriculum
OU work with respect to teachers
Lots of in-service
each year 1000 new schools
each school gets a Mac
and a computer conferencing link
fairly soon all schools will be linked
did some something on the something on the bicycle many years ago
was too sophisticated for students and teachers
in UK linking math - science and technology is almost unheard of.
Question & Answer Session
Principles of Technology : is there any thing like it in the UK
Not now: National Curriculum killed it
Science teacher does not know anything about design
Doyle agreed that same is true in US
Doyle: By 2000, 70% of jobs will require something between a high school and BS
education; asked if something in UK is addressing this issue: Answer is basically
no.
Keith:
Not trying to build a system in which people actually being able to do things will not be
respectable. Levels are being created so you can be a level 5 manager; engineering
is drawing up levels of attainment. always a tension between knowledge and
ability. GNPQ part of this. OU has a stake because students can get 25% off on
courses which can be certified to help students reach competencies.
In schools very little scientific investigation in schools. Science can contribute
the methodology rather than the content.
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David Winch, Ian Spratley & Huw Williams - BBC
Pilot CD-ROM
Pilot concept CD-ROM
Limited budget
prototype to get feedback from people
needs to be flexible
Built on a concept developed at the Lincoln
Three major concepts
see flow diagram
Dave walked us through the science component of CD
Ian - the technology component
Jim P. - Some of the concepts in the ET and BOU videos are not correct technically, but it does put a point across. Can you fix it and still get a point across? Some of our stuff is misleading and does not agree with design issues.
Prentice: Society -- he thought it meant to bring in different cultures within the country as well as between cultures. Need to motivate students in different cultures within the US. How do I make this appealing to the middle school students who might otherwise be uninterested in science?
Dave: The prototype gave sort shift to the cultural and societal aspects.
Bob: I would have started with unique uses of the bicycle. Japanese in WW2; Dutch pulling loads; 1000s in China, etc.
Dave: Design is to formal
Huw: Technical details
Hard coded in C++
Lot of work to make look as good as possible
Installs almost nothing on
Video start by compressing on a Mac, used Aurora to convert to avi. Has key
frames.
Day 2
BBC Production Studio
Open University Campus
May 17, 1995
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Frits Gravenberch - Dutch Efforts
Overview
Bicycles, a logical step in the Dutch process of curriculum innovation
Developing an educational design
Discussion
Introduction
Development to revise the curriculum began in the 1970
PLON
DBK = Differentiation within the classroom
Two different models of a curriculum
Frits will discuss PLON
PLON characteristics
Thematic curriculum
independent learning in small groups (social learning)
learning by making investigations in realistic situation
physics "distilled" from and applicable to problem solving in every day life
Central Theme in Traffic and safety
What kind of safety measurements are sitting in a car and what kind of physics do we need
to understand their functioning.
PLON model
Orientation -- Research in small groups -- oral presentations -- summarizing
Scheme for the development of the EDB = educational design of bicycles
selection of content
development of concrete exemplary teaching units
description of the design and testing of prototypes
finally, development of the EDB
Steps in developing independent research skills
Phase
1. problem orientation
2. hypothesis design - model building
3. research plan - equipment design
4. experiment performance
5. report & evaluation
Bike CD-ROM could be used in phase 1 as students to research the problem
selected 4 preliminary themes for four different audiences
primary: Are you living in a safe neighborhood (in terms of bicycles)
secondary: braking and stopping safely a bike
VO I: emphasis on hypothesizing
VO II: emphasis on modeling
tertiary: technical design - making a design as well as the actual object
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Herman Gritter - Student Thoughts about Science of the Bike
Interviewed students in groups -- report will be distributed at lunch
example 1: development of the bicycle in western countries as a means of transportation
secondary students
Orientation then choose between three themes
place students in teams
A. social-economic changes
B. technical changes and ecological development
C. present-day use of bicycles
a first did not plan to interview teachers
have decided that we need to interview the teachers
will ask teachers what they think about the examples.
Questions and Answers
Ian: Were students who chose physics interested in bicycles? yes
their interests were movement, resistance and forces
encyclopedia type of knowledge and formula (math equations)
Were students who were not majoring in physics interested in non-technical aspects of the bike. do not know yet.
number of students interviewed? small number so far. (only 4 physics
students)
so far students are from the eastern part of the country and middle; see geographic
differences; one school had experience with PLON materials; other did not.
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Development of low resistance bikes and thoughts on bike design
"Thinking is excellent"
Booklet on basics of bicycles
Hand out + demo of computerized bike.
Talked about Kingsbury Bean II world record at 47 miles in hour
Jim showed software for collecting data on an instrumented stationary bike (Kingsbury Trainer system). Bike is connected to PC via serial port. collects and calculates lots of variables. Has a radio transmitter to collected heart rate data. Graph shows what you should do to get maximum performance. No feedback to the bike -- set up as level surface with a 70 kg rider. Lab tool not a simulator. Cost £1700 not including PC and bike.
Showed a prototype for the wasp. By using a back and forth pedaling mechanism he can reduce the surface area from the Bean II by 20%. Expect to get a bike which will go 50 miles in hour.
Practical vehicle - three wheel recumbent with linear drives allows lower front end and allows the rider to see easily. This needs very good brakes because it can hit 100 MPH going down hill. Lack of air resistance
Standard recumbent: £1500
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David Jones - Simple Experiments using the Bicycle
Video of super stable bike. Independent producer and WGBH.
Experiment 1:
Put weight on top of bike wheel; let it fall -- increase the mass 50g, 100g, 200g ,
measure the angular speed of the wheel. 4 times the mass gives twice the
speed. demonstrate that mgh = 1/2 I *2. Small correction for the energy left
in the weight when it leaves the wheel. Plot revolutions versus time and get
frictional force. very small compared to reality because the weight of the rider is
important
Experiment 2:
hang brick on pedal (3 kg) balance the force on the pedal with a force hanging on the
wheel. Get the ratio of the gears.
"Accurate calculations only reveal errors in the experiment."
Experiment 3:
Brick on pedal with pedal horizontal; release the pedal; calculate the energy of the
rear wheel; get the same energy in the wheel because the same energy input. Thus,
proving that gears are unnecessary.
Experiment 4:
Take front wheel off; spin it and give it to a students to carry around
Experiment 5;
Spin wheel drop the wheel so it travels along the floor. It goes much slower.
Why? Add linear kinetic energy to the rotational energy.
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Graham Dettrick - Recent history of curricula in Australia &
Other Thoughts
Until recently the model of education in Australia was a transmission model.
Three separate streams. Paradigm shift about 15 years ago. Politicians caught
up with educational theory. Moved toward a model similar to PLON or constructivism
called a liberal-progressive model.
New curriculum designs follow the new paradigm
Physics program
Includes societal and historical aspects.
Is useful for hobbies, understanding a particular way of knowing the world
A method of learning about the world as well as a body of knowledge
Not value free
Applications to personal, domestic and global levels
Universities are starting to cope with these new types of students.
Book: The Bicycle and the Bush: Describes the role of the bike tin the history of the country.
Book: title: Dunlop history has 4 chapters on the history of the bike.
Societal Issues
Inter-parish marriages in England increased at the same time that the bike became popular;
speculated that saved the genetic pool of English (hybridic vigor)
Heat generated in bike decreases sperm count. the mechanical contraceptive.
Female decrease in body fat makes them less fertile.
Videos
First video:
Kathy Watts "super bike" from Beyond 2000, Called Superoo
Bike developed at Aerospce Department at RMIT (Melbourne)
Increases the useful energy by 5%
Second
History of the Superoo bike.
Showed some lab tests
Lockman Thompson is leader of research group
Project was graduate project.
Going to try to sell it (may be A$600)
Lots of video to put a human and product "face"
L. Thompson has lots of images on computer.
Third video
Poster collection
Archives of Pacific Dunlop
P-D may be interested in a proposal and providing some financial support
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