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Simple, Portable Physics Simulations
ttsiod writes "I want to 'lure' my nephews/nieces towards Science and Engineering (to whatever extent that's possible, in the age of consoles). To that end, I have coded simple physics simulations, like falling snow, exploding fireworks, and 1D/2D wave simulations. My efforts are here, in the form of portable SDL mini-programs (GPL code, compilable under Windows, Linux, Free/Net/OpenBSD, Mac OS/X and basically every OS with GCC and SDL). Try them out, and do offer any suggestions on other programs that can trigger scientific interest in young minds. Myself, I am teaching them Python, so that they can code 'fireworks' on their own."
...real fireworks for them instead. The real thing beats just about everything and eyebrows grow back, you know. :)
Now the world has gone to bed, Darkness won't engulf my head, I can see by infra-red, How I hate the night.
In order to save children from the hell called Basic, Seymour Papert created a nice language called Logo.
Ezekiel 23:20
No, no, no.
To get kids interested in Physics - or anyone for that matter, a physical real world demonstration is the way to go. The most popular physics professor at MIT is known for his lecture theatrics.
Shooting metal balls across the room and having them derive an equation will teach them something.
Computer simualtions are boring! It's worse than watching TV and they will learn nothing. No. Have them create experiments, duplicate classic ones - some of the classic E&M experiments are a hoot and they're easy to build and best of all, they're not a computer simulation. They are REAL LIFE.