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Multimedia Science
    
 
Science Software By Science Teachers For Science Teachers
 
Computer Based Instruction (CBI)
 

By using an assortment of different multimedia modules, software can help teach students pieces of curriculum material. Students start to learn through the use of tutorials, continue to learn through guided practice, add to their understanding by watching animations or running simulations, enjoy applying the learned material by playing games, and finally, show that they have learned the material by taking tests. One name given to this type of software is computer based learning or CBI. Some of the advantages of CBI are:

  • Students can learn at their own pace
  • Students bcome more independent learners
  • Learning becomes more student centered
  • Teachers have more time to facilitate and answer student questions
  • Students receive immediate feedback and teachers can see the resulting test results
  • Students are motvated and enjoy the learning environment that is created
 
  Let's take a look at an example of a CBI piece of software created by Multimedia Science called The Ritzytown Water Projects. This interactive learning experience covers the chemistry topic of acids and bases. Below are several screen shots with a description of how students work through the software. You can click on the graphics to see a larger version.  
 
 
 

 

Students work through the tutorials which are broken down into four units as follows:

  • Dissociation & The Beharior of Water
  • pH & Calculating pH
  • Properties of Water Solutions
  • Neutralization & Titration

These tutorials include guided practice, simulations, games, and quizzes.

 

 

Let's look at the topic of running a titration. Students are shown a step by step schematic on how to do a titration. Then they watch a movie showing other students running through the titration step by step as shown above. Finally, they practice on a simulation in which they must duplicate each step, run the titration, read the buret, and find the unknown concentration.

  
 
 
 

 

As students work through the tutorials, they frequently use simulations, like the liquid testing lab above. First they run the tests on a set of unknown liquids which leads them to the properties of acids and bases. Later they must determine whether a solution is an acid or a base or find the pH. In the screen shot above, they are finding the pH of a solution by using pH paper.

 

    
 
 
 

 

Sprinkled throughout the tutorials and final project are several games. In the game above, students see how quickly they can guess the pH of a number of everyday liquids.

  

 

After students work through the tutorials and take the quizzes, they go on to the final project. They work as a chemical tester at a company located in Ritzytown and must apply the knowledge that they have learned. From their office shown above, they must read and write letters, talk to their boss and others on the phone, take tests at testing sites, run tests on the samples, and determine where the water polution is coming from.

 
         
  Here are some other computer based instructional Multimedia Science software titles:  
   

Physics

  • Beat The Yellow Light