Piaget (1961)“Experience of objects plays, naturally, a very important role in the establishment of dynamic structures”

“All exchange between the organism and the environment is composed of two poles:

A) of the assimilation of the given external to the previous internal structures, and

B) of the accommodation of these structures to the given ones.”

From Piaget (1961) A genetic approach to the psychology of thought

Papert 1980 “Relate what is new … to something you already

know… Take what is new and make it your own”

Learning Newton’s Laws

“More is needed than an intuitive, seat of the pants experience. The student needs to … conceptualize and ‘capture’ this world”

“Design a microworld to serve as an incubator for Newtonian physics”

With scientific method, we took things apart to see how they work. Now with computers we can put things back together to see how they work, by modelling complex, interrelated processes, even life itself. This is a new age of discovery, and ICT is the gateway.

Douglas Adams, Author

The Importance of ICT

National Curriculum KS1: to try things out and explore what

happens in real and imaginary situations

KS2: to use simulations and explore models in order to answer 'What if ... ?' questions, to investigate and evaluate the effect of changing values and to identify patterns and relationships

Computing

A high-quality computing education equips pupils to understand and change the world through computational thinking. It develops and requires logical thinking and precision. It combines creativity with rigour: pupils apply underlying principles to understand real-world systems, and to create purposeful and usable artefacts. More broadly, it provides a lens through which to understand both natural and artificial systems, and has substantial links with the teaching of mathematics, science, and design and technology.

Programme of Study

use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs

design and write programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems

Physics

Simulators

Scratch Physics

Numpty Physics

Star Logo TNG

Epidemics in Scratch

Google Art Project

Sketchup

Scratch 4 Second Life

Minecraft

Following up & moving on

Attach your VR model to a blog post which includes your reflections.

You may wish to create an account for Second Life and investigate its educational potential.

Read pp 32-50 of Bacon and Dillon (2006), posting any thoughts to your Blog.

Book a tutorial for next week.