As a result, teachers gain the proficiency to integrate what they have learned into their curricula, thereby exposing their students to real science. Many simulation programs that run on personal computers usually available in the K-12 classroom permit students to examine interesting concepts, but their results only roughly and symbolically approach reality. In contrast, the interactive simulation programs developed at NCSA harness HPCC technologies to offer higher fidelity or closer approximations of reality. These simulations have been adapted from simulations used by scientists working at or with NCSA and its resources. In some cases, they are the same simulation codes.
Students then use real scientists' tools to generate, gather, visualize, and analyze real data.
Not only does this allow students to study exciting questions never before possible in a K-12 classroom, but students are able to ask and help to answer questions that intrigue today's scientists. Members of the Education Group are also scanning the network to keep up with developments at other centers, identifying a variety of applications that can now be brought into the K-12 classroom. Several of the simulation programs developed and utilized by NCSA's Education Program are described below. ChemViz is a tools and materials development project that enables advanced chemistry topics to be addressed in the high school curriculum by harnessing HPCC technologies. With Chem Viz, the user runs the program Boogie on a Macintosh or PC and selects from the periodic table the atoms for the molecule that is to be computed and visualized.