Odyssey: An Interactive Simulation to Learn Concepts of the Solar System

Abstract

Children of age group 10 to 14 face difficulties to understand the concepts of the Solar System as it is vast and beyond comprehension. There is no feasible scope for direct exposure. Astronomy kits are usually expensive to afford and the current means applied in Government schools fail to address this issue. Odyssey is an interactive virtual Solar System which helps children visualise concepts of scale and distance and various events, for instance, Eclipse and Lunar Phases. Odyssey creates a realistic simulation of the movement of the planets and various other events by taking into account the Planets' positions at a given time, their mass and the gravitational forces between them. Odyssey follows an approach where students figure out concepts by trial and error, by changing different values and seeing the effects in real-time thereby learning by doing.