General Information
Funded by the European Commission and the U. S. Department
of Education as part of the Joint Consortium for Cooperation in Higher
Education, the project emphasizes teaching, learning and cultural exchange. Faculty
and students focus on the bicycle - an application of technology utilized in almost all
cultures. European Community and United States students enrolled in one of the ten partner institutions become part of an international
team who investigate various scientific, technological and cultural aspects of the
bicycle. During their studies they create multimedia instructional materials about
the activities. The students are part of a three-year effort that will link international
students by computer and bring them together periodically to work face-to-face.
This project seeks to use the transatlantic cooperation of students and experienced educators to develop innovative curriculum materials needed for this approach. Experts in interactive technologies and education provide students with the specialized training required to develop materials. The project staff believes the study of the bicycle offers the proper mix of simplicity and complexity in both the technical and cultural aspects that will allow it to become the vehicle for a multidisciplinary topic for all students. It is a project that makes excellent use of the special features of interactive technologies including World Wide Web.
Most people, regardless of gender, geographical location or economic level, have experienced the physical sensations (leg muscles, wind, turning a bicycle no handed, etc.) associated with riding a bicycle. It is an interactive activity between rider and the cycle. The topic, The Bicycle in Science, Technology, and Society was selected for this project because of the;
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ubiquitous nature of bicycles, |
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sensory connection between riding a bicycle and bicycle science, |
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direct application of science and technology to bicycles, |
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availability of existing bicycle educational materials in print and video, |
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different usage of bicycles in various cultures in the world, |
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project faculty expertise in education, multimedia, and the bicycle, |
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existing transatlantic project faculty network. |
We build upon this common experience to develop an international team approach to learning and problem solving.
The project involves the physical sciences, engineering, and biomechanical aspects of cycling as well as it's cultural context. It gives students real concrete experiences with the concepts as velocity, acceleration, forces (wind, friction, human), mass, work, energy power, efficiency (mechanical and human), center of mass, torque, momentum of inertia, linear and angular momentum, strength of materials, design, etc. Students collect and analyze data from many resources; including real experiments using traditional measuring tools (stop watches, meter rulers etc.), video sources using digital video tools, computer simulations and computerized stationary bicycles. New portable measuring probes, that fit into water bottle holders, will allow students to collect data (distance, time, force, heart rate, wind speed, etc) while undergoing real road conditions.
This shared data collection will add a new dimension of cooperative international
student learning. Students in the Netherlands will have access to real bicycle data
collected by students in the mountains of New Hampshire, while American students will have
the opportunity to appreciate the dominant role of the bicycle in the Dutch transportation
system and how this influences their society. Black students in Virginia will have the
opportunity to experience the Greek cultural while working on a challenging technology
problem. The international electronic linking of classes in the U.S. and E.C. countries
and focusing on the bicycle will allow the curriculum to branch out from science and
technology concepts into cultural and economics issues.
The immense digital data storage capacity of a CD-ROM will make it possible for the
cooperative international teams to document and share their activities. They will store
project text, graphics, data, and video on a multilingual CD-ROM.
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Before this project |
The first stage of this project was the identification of a group of experts in education, digital technology, and bicycle technology. Next we collected materials related to the science, technology, and society aspects of the bicycle and conducted three international workshops with the project team and other interested groups including students. We have obtained the rights to an extensive collection of bicycle material (print and video). These materials collected from several countries deal with using the bicycle as a theme to teach science and technology. We also have acquired the rights to an extensive collection of technical resource materials on bicycles which includes a complete set of Frank Whitt's bike papers, lab exercises, etc. and Bicycle Science, Frank Whitt and David Wilson, MIT Press, a classics book on the science of bicycles. The following is a list of some of these materials.
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Interactive videodisc Energy Transformations Featuring the Bicycle |
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Traffic, and Motions 1 and 2, bicycle course material developed in the Netherlands |
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Design, Bicycles, Invention and Innovation, course developed and offered by the British Open University |
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Bike Frames-A Case Study, course developed and offered by the British Open University |
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The Evolution of Bicycle, a fifty minute BBC film |
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Bicycle Science, Frank Whitt and David Wilson, MIT Press, classics book on the science of bicycles |
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a complete set of Frank Whitt's bike papers, and lab exercises |
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we are also in the process in obtaining the rights to other materials. |
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Year 1 |
Recruiting students and the establishment of individual administrative procedures for the ten member institutions were the primary tasks during the first seven months of this project. The completion of these pragmatic issues is essential to the ultimate success of the project. The speed and easy of electronic mail allowed for rapid and continuous communication among the ten participating faculty and institutions in the six different countries. This exchange was supplemented by the personal contacts, between the USA and EC members. Dean Zollman, Kansas State University, spent six months of his sabbatical at the University of Kiel, one of our EC member institutions. He also visited two other EC member institutions while in Europe. The US faculty participates had a meeting in January 1998 while attending a professional conference and we are planning a similar meeting in August 1998 with the US faculty and the lead EC person.
We have had press coverage on the project in two local newspapers and in three participating college newspapers. We gave two presentations on the project at winter national meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers and had a poster session at the summer meeting in August 1998. We had a central project web site that has links to member web sites.
We have recruited 16 students to participate in our international science education project. In May 1998, three U. S. students and one German student had a one day meeting at the University of Kiel with a our project German and Kansas State faculty. We are in the final preparation stages for a two-week August 1998 international student workshop scheduled at Kalamazoo College. Next year we will hold this workshop at one of the EC institutions. These workshops are designed to allow students to develop personal relationships with all of the participating exchange students and to train these students in the use of educational digital technologies (video capture, portable calculator based laboratories, web/html authoring, computer simulation tools, etc.). After the workshop they will travel to their respective foreign institutions.
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Year 2 |
The official opening of the second year of our project started in August 1998 with a very successfully ten-day student workshop held at Kalamazoo College. Seventeen students from eight member institutions attended the 1998 workshop.
The workshop had two positive outcomes. The students developed good personal contacts with the overseas students and a sense that they were part of a team project rather than merely individual students studying aboard. For example, immediately after the workshop one of the U.S. students invited two of the workshop students from the Netherlands to stay at his home in Chicago home while they were on their way to the University of Nebraska. Later one of the Dutch students invited the U.S. student to stay in his home in Amsterdam. The students now feel comfortable contacting other workshop students for assistance on their projects. I also maintain email connections with the overseas students and there is a different difference in our exchange due to our time together.
We would like to strongly recommend that the other funded project groups offer similar student group meetings. This type of meeting does require significant coordination efforts to match the ten institutions’ schedules but we believe that the results are worth the effort.Presentations
We have given several presentations on our project at the national meetings of the American Association of Physics Teachers. The first presentation, at the January 1998 meeting in New Orleans, was a general description of the project. We expanded on our program at the 1998 summer AAPT meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska where we had a poster session that featured general information on the project and displays of special bicycles. We are planning a repeat of this poster session at the AAPT 1999 summer meeting in San Antonio where we will have displays of some of the student projects completed in 1998.
Lothar Bodingbauer, University of Vienna, prepared and delivered a 30 minute radio broadcast on the project on 1476 Radio in Austria. Radio1476 is operated by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation and the University of Vienna. with a transmission power (600 kW) and a range of about 1000 km.Second Year Students
We had seven U.S. students participating in the study abroad program in the E.C. countries in 1998-99. The number of students in 1999 -2000 is up from the three students in 1997-98 and we expect 10 U.S. students to study abroad in 1999-2000. We are requesting a no cost extension for 2000-2201 to provide stipends to U.S. students to study abroad in 2000-2001. It does take time to establish a program that will attract students. We also failed to account for the number of students who had to withdraw from the program for a wide variety of reasons.
Working Cycle Meeting
In May 1999 we held a one-week working meeting/workshop for the project faculty in Austria.
Eight of the ten project faculty attended the working meeting. After dealing with some general issues (student recruitment, presentations, student project and a summary of the state of our project) with the entire group during the first day and a half, we then divided into small working groups of two or three persons that focused on:
• 1999 Student Workshop
• Updating and improving the central project web site
• Educational design for project lessons
• Development of sample lessons.1999 Student Workshop
We are planning to repeat the 1998 Student Workshop in August 1999 at the University of Amsterdam. We used the student evaluations from the 1998 workshop to design the 1999 workshop. We believe that we have designed an even better Student Workshop for 1999 than the 1998 workshop. We are expecting 20 students from U.S./E.C. institutions to attend the workshop. Two of our international known bicycle authorities/consultants will contribute to the workshop. The only significant program change is to provide more options for the students to accommodate the wide range of student education and experiences. Our program has attracted a wide range of students with ages ranging from 18 – 50 years old and majors in physics, mathematics, computer science, teacher education, sociology, urban planning, etc.
Final Thoughts
We have a very diverse group of students and we have arranged a flexible program to optimize their learning experiences. Our students are doing more than merely taking courses in a different country. They are working on developing materials on a common theme from a broad range of perspectives and sharing in this process. They are actively involved in the learning process. We believe that students control their own learning and it is our task to motivate them and establish some boundaries in their quest. We are guiding them in this learning but we are not leading them.
Teaching materials using the bicycle as a motivation and an example for the learning of science and technology has arisen from the research and development in several different countries. Recent educational research has led to an even better understanding of how students learn using these materials. Advances in digital information technology have lead to significant improvements in the delivery of these materials and to their level of interactivity. Strong and active educational efforts involving the bicycle exist at several universities in the United States and Europe.
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Papers from GIREP, 1982 | ||||||||
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European Workshops:
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