It allows students to videotape motion events and use the graphing capabilities of a microcomputer to carefully examine and analyze the motion. This particular use of the computer as a data collection and analysis tool derives from several studies of the successful use of microcomputer-based laboratories. Our contention is that by seeing both the concrete motion event and the abstract graphical representation of that motion, students will be better able to make the cognitive links between the two. Impact of Video Motion Analysis on Kinematics Graph Interpretation Skills . VideoGraph can be used several different ways.
Students can still use images from their own videotaped motion events.
The new version also supports access to videodisc images. So, besides its obvious use as a data gathering and analysis tool, VideoGraph can be used by students to analyze previously recorded motion events or even simulated microworlds where the laws of motion are programmed into the system by either themselves or their teacher. It is important to realize that our purpose is not to eliminate labs or replace them with simulations. In other words, the same software package would serve as a general motion data collection and analysis tool and as a simulation for further study. The project has been favorably reviewed by the teaching community and has won the 1989 Ohaus Award for Innovation in Science Teaching from the National Science Teachers Association, an honorable mention in the 1994 Computers in Physics Instructional Software Contest, and an honorable mention in the 1995 Computers in Physics Fifth Annual Educational Software Contest.