links for 2008-07-06

July 5, 2008 — dougpete
Posted in Del.icio.us. 2 Comments »

Best in Show

July 5, 2008 — dougpete

In a conference like NECC 2008 with so much and so varied experiences, it’s very difficult to determine a “Best in Show”. It’s a personal experience and certainly doesn’t demean any of the other things, but this leaps to the forefront for me.

I’m not running around the conference with a rubric rating various things. My litmus test is that the best of the best demands more than a passing interest, a return look, and an obsession to try it out at home on my equipment so that I can share it with others.

My tendencies are mathematical and I make no bones about it. Math makes the world go around and mathematical literacy is important to everyone. Whether your job involves making change for a sale, estimating the amount of paint required to cover a wall, or as an air traffic controller keeping airplanes safe and under control, mathematics is at the heart of it all.

The poster sessions at conferences are always the highlight for me. It was at a poster session that I ran into this application. NASA has developed a simulator that allows you to go through what it means to be an air traffic controller. This project is supported by the FAA and the gentleman that I talked to indicated that a real Air Traffic Controller can come into your classroom and talk about this as a career.

Details are here: http://www.smartskies.nasa.gov/lineup/index.html where you can find all sorts of details and instructions with the actual simulator located at: http://www.atcsim.nasa.gov.

The premise is actually quite simple. You’re an air traffic controller with one runway to land your incoming plans. You have a number of flight paths that your clients potentially approach your landing strip on and there is the potential for bad weather to get into the road. Your job is to get all of the planes safely on the ground in as optimal a time and as safely as you can. The application comes with its own problem sets of 2-5 incoming airplanes or you can create your own. As an Air Traffic Controller, you’re not driving the plane. You are limited to instructing the actual pilot to adjust speed or approach route.

To be successful, you need to develop an ongoing and real life sense of time, distance, and speed. Once the simulator starts, there’s no time for calculators! You’re on your own to apply proportional reasoning.

When the simulator ends, there are no fireworks going off to celebrate success. If you are not successful, there are no gruesome examples of carnage either. But, you may re-analyze what you did and look for an even more optimal solution. This is guaranteed to have more than a passing interest.

I recall a university professor talking to us in math class once. “If you are an athlete, how to you get better? Practice, Practice, Practice.” If you have a tendency towards mathematics, what do you do? “Do the odd numbered questions on page 37 for tomorrow.” Applications like this are great for mathematics and maybe those with mathematical potention will be encouraged to “Practice, Practice, Practice”. I know I did.

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Posted in Computers, Education, Read/Write Web, Teaching, software. 3 Comments »