Category Archives: Interactive Learning

25th anniversary of Reactor Lab this month!

Reactor Lab is a pioneer in developing interactive simulations for active learning. This is a screenshot of an experiment in the Lab in March 1993 – 25 years ago this month. The Lab was a single HyperCard stack. Click on the image to see a larger version.

RL_March_1993

Here is the same experiment in today’s desktop Reactor Lab.

RL_now

A brief history of the development of Reactor Lab through 2006 is available at LiveCode Journal (hit browser back button to return here). The article refers to Revolution, which was LiveCode’s previous name. LiveCode is the development tool used to build the desktop version of ReactorLab.

Web Lab design progress

We have been working on our web page design project, lcCardLayoutToWeb, which is posted at GitHub. Here is a screenshot of a test page.

This project allows one to layout a web page in the LiveCode IDE, then export it to HTML and CSS files. The new work makes the process reversible. Exported pages can be edited to include links to Javascript files and references to Javascript functions in HTML events. Then the edited page can be imported into our LiveCode project for further editing of the layout: moving, adding and deleting elements. Then the revised page can be exported back to HTML and CSS files with the file and event references preserved.

This new work should allow us to make interactive web apps more easily.

See our newest Web Lab, “Dynamic diffusion and reaction in a porous solid catalyst” at the Web Labs tab above. See the latest version of this web lab in our open-source projects at GitHub, https://github.com/RichardHerz/.

23 years of Reactor Lab and interactive simulations for active learning

Reactor Lab is a pioneer in developing interactive simulations for active learning. This is a screenshot of an experiment in the Lab in March 1993, when the Lab was a single HyperCard stack. The screenshot was taken after it was converted to a LiveCode stack to keep it alive and operable on today’s computers. Click on the image to see a larger version.

RL_March_1993

Here is the same experiment in today’s Reactor Lab.

RL_now

A brief history of the development of Reactor Lab through 2006 is available at LiveCode Journal. The article refers to Revolution, which was LiveCode’s previous name.

 

Women in engineering, a pioneer

“The unbelievable life of the forgotten genius [Katherine Johnson] who turned Americans’ space dreams into reality” http://www.businessinsider.com/katherine-johnson-hidden-figures-nasa-human-computers-2016-8

“Throughout her education, she says she succeeded in part because she was always asking questions — even when people tried to ignore her, her hand stayed up.”

Trailer for upcoming movie about Katherine Johnson, Hidden Figures: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/hidden-figures

My advice to students for succeeding at the university

1) Study with at least one other student in each class. Get study buddies.

Don’t do it all alone. You will learn from other students, even when you show them how you figured things out. They will keep you honest when studying for a test: no peeking at notes when they ask a potential test question.

2) Schedule plenty of time to study and do homework. Do not overcommit.

Do not get too involved with work, student organizations, athletics, gaming, or partying. There are lots of interesting things to do at the university other than study.

Note: Not following (1) and (2) are almost always the reasons I have seen students struggle at UCSD. Everyone who gets admitted is smart enough. Don’t worry about that.

3) Talk to your professors and TAs.

A couple times during the term, ask them about topics in class or their research.

Do not always ask them about points on homework and tests. That will leave a negative impression of you. It is fine to ask about points, just not as the first question nor the only question.

At their office door, always remind them of your name, and ask them if they have a minute to talk about (fill in something interesting, not points). Do not ask, “are you busy?” Stupid question. Prof’s are always busy! Best not to approach them right before class.

Don’t wait until you are struggling in a class. Always talk to them if you do start to struggle for any reason, even if you haven’t talked to them before. Get help early!

If they know you, then you are more likely to get “the benefit of the doubt” during grading, e.g., drawing the grade line just below you instead of just above you.

4) Aim for A grades. Try to get at least B grades.

To keep open the option of going to grad school or professional school, you need to graduate with at least a 3.0 GPA overall. Also, you need at least 3.0 (B) average in your major if you want to continue in that major in grad school.

Most schools won’t admit a student to grad school with less than a 3.0 GPA, except in unusual, extenuating circumstances and with a sponsoring professor. Don’t rely on that. With less than a 3.0, your options are schools with lower standards, lower reputations, and higher costs.

5) The day before your first day of class, walk around campus and locate your classrooms.

Before serving on an advising panel one day, I asked a barista at Muir Woods the most important thing to tell new students. This is her advice. Sounds good to me.

Web app experiments

Web app experiments have been added to the Resources page. These are experiments using HTML5 and Javascript to do interactive simulations in a web page. We are just getting started with these experiments.

Reactor Lab is a desktop app with Internet connectivity. Is that the best way to do things, or should we move to web apps?

A nice set of web apps has been written by Professor Anthony Butterfield at the University of Utah. Anthony did his MS in Chemical Engineering at UCSD with our faculty. Here is a LINK to his web site with web apps.