Developing a Dynamics Simulation Tool for Student Exploration of Concepts

Dynamics provides a tool for civil engineers to evaluate a changing world. The material presented in the dynamics course relies heavily on the pre-requisites and connects concepts in new ways. Knowledge transfer to dynamic principles is difficult even when students do see a connection to previous courses. Misconceptions are very persistent and cannot be easily debunked by standard instruction with lectures, textbooks, demonstrations or laboratories. Educators and researchers have looked at using computers to enhance classroom instruction ever since the technology made it feasible to do so. This is particularly effective for topics that involve motion of objects or other significant visual components that are not easily represented on a black board. Simulation programs also allow complex systems to be quickly and easily modeled and can be adapted to many different learning styles. The authors have collaborated in the development of a dynamics simulation software package that has the power and flexibility to handle the model systems normally encountered in a course in dynamics in order to address these issues. This software gives the student the ability to build, tune, simulate and evaluate a model all within a single environment. The software developed provides a “construction set” that students can use to build their own simulations of dynamic models and run them to observe their performance. This program is interactive and can be used in the classroom for demonstrations, in the laboratory for guided use, and on student’s own computers for experimentation and to complete assignments. The computer simulations provide ample opportunity for them to learn in an environment that allows them to fail safely.