Scratch

fbboi999 wrote:

I need opinions here:

Would it be worth it, and would it be successful if I make a project that goes pretty deep into basic chemistry, physics, algebra concepts. It will not only have the information in a program, but itwill also have practice problems and stuff

It will take a while, but I thought it would be helpful

Basically, tell me if I should or not

And givesome suggestions

I was talking to a teacher friend the other day who was bemoaning the fact that she had to teach remedial classes on basic fraction operations to high school kids.  So it sounds like that might be an area where it would be useful to develop some projects. 

But we need to hear from more teachers...what topics would benefit your classes?  What grade level should be targeted?  Is it more useful to have certain types of projects (flash card, multiiple choice quiz, etc.) developed that could be easily customized or very specific projects that address a particular topic in depth but may not be very reusable?

Probably better to make each subject a seperate project.  That way you can release it incrementally.

There are a lot of "courseware" programs already out there for delivering instruction (moogle comes to mind as a good open source example).  I don't know how appropriate scratch would be for delivering a whole course.  However....

The thing that scratch is good for is giving students a workspace for messing around with concepts and ideas.  Why not create some projects where you give students the basic building blocks and concepts and then ask them to use them to solve a problem, thus demonstrating and extending their knowledge.  For example, for a physics class, challenge them to simulate a falling object, with variables for the mass of the object, the pull of gravity, etc...  They could even create a "floor" and calculate the force of the object hitting the floor from a certain height.

I've done some math projects similar to this for my fifth grade (10 year old) students, check out Grandma Prime and Base10 here:  http://scratch.mit.edu/users/mrswanson

As you will see, I'm still experimenting with the idea myself!

Best of luck,

I think you should go for it.  More risk equals greater reward