Interactive Tutorial Program Provides Students With a Better Understanding
of Motion 

Physics Academic Software Releases Conceptual Kinematics

December 22, 1995-Conceptual Kinematics is designed to give beginning
physics students the practice they need to understand and apply the
definitions of position, velocity, and acceleration. This interactive
software provides the busy high school or introductory college teacher
with an effective, self-paced tutorial for the student who needs more
practice in working with the basic concepts of motion. 

Developed by Frank Griffin of the University of Akron and Louis Turner of
Western Reserve Academy, Conceptual Kinematics presents animations, strobe
photographs, and multiple graphical representations of motion through
carefully formed tutorial questions. The questions have distractor
responses based on common misconceptions, so that most conceptual problems
will be quickly detected. When a student gives an incorrect response, the
program repeats the animation and offers additional information to help
the student focus attention on the changes of the appropriate quantity. 

The Conceptual Kinematics programs are highly interactive. They are written
at the student's level and are designed so the student can proceed at his
or her own pace. When students work together, the programs foster the kind
of dialogue that promotes understanding. 

The programs cover all possible representations of motion along a straight
line-strobe records; position-time, velocity-time, and acceleration-time
graphs; as well as written descriptions of a motion. One program shows the
motion of an object and the motion of a speedometer needle along a scale,
while simultaneously plotting the velocity-time graph associated with the
motion. Acceleration is by far the most difficult motion concept to
comprehend. Many students have trouble understanding the difference
between velocity and acceleration. Velocity is always in the direction of
the motion, but acceleration may be in the same or the opposite direction.
By comparing the motion of a car to the motion of its speedometer needle
along a scale, these tutorials clarify the meanings of positive and
negative acceleration. 

Conceptual Kinematics is published and distributed by Physics Academic
Software, which is a project of the American Institute of Physics in
cooperation with the American Physical Society and the American
Association of Physics Teachers. it is part of a continuing series of
educational software from PAS. 

Conceptual Kinematics operates on a PC computer with a hard disk and VGA
graphics or a Macintosh Plus computer or later operating with system
software 6.0 or higher. 

Conceptual Kinematics may be purchased from Physics Academic Software for
$69.95 plus $3.50 for shipping and handling for the first package ($12.50
foreign air mail) and $.75 ($4.00 foreign) for each additional package.
Lab Packs, which include ten copies of the software and one User's Manual,
are available for $209.95. Physics Academic Software offers a no-risk
guarantee by providing a full refund for packages returned within 30 days.


Orders and requests for the Physics Academic Software 1995-1996 Catalog of
Programs should be directed to Physics Academic Software, Campus Box 8202,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8202. By telephone,
call (800) 955-8275 or (919) 515-7447; Fax (919) 515-2682; E-mail
pas@aip.org. You can also order RAY from the Physics Academic Software
home page at the following address http://www.aip.org/pas/pashome.html. 
 
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