Following the success of my research and development in integrating CMM in experimental high schools, I am currently leading a 3-year project funded by the Israeli Ministry of Education. The aim of the project is to introduce CMM and computerized laboratories into chemistry courses for high school students majoring in chemistry, and to assimilate it as an integral part of the matriculation examinations. In the middle of that century Maxwell formulated Faraday's field model mathematically. In view of the difficulty that scientists experienced in conceptualizing electromagnetic phenomena, it is no surprise that undergraduate students encounter serious difficulties when confronted with Maxwell's theory. We hope to make this theory more comprehensible to introductory students through the use of educational technology.
Educational technology supports meaningful learning and knowledge integration.
Spatial images preserve relationships among a complex set of ideas and play a central role in scientific creativity. The historical background and the options educational technology offers have stimulated us to envision computer-based visualization as a prime aid for teaching the complicated dynamics exhibited by electromagnetic fields. It is aimed at serving as a model for undergraduate science courses for large groups. The TEAL environment is a merger of lecture, recitations, and hands-on laboratory experience into a technologically and collaboratively rich experience for incoming freshmen. Engaging 3D animations and 2D Java simulations of the phenomena under study complement the laboratory experiments that students carry out as a part of the course.