Saturday, August 6, 2011

Open Source Physics: Tracker

I discovered this neat tool when learning about the physics of Angry Birds. Not only does Tracker identify and track objects frame-by-frame through a video, it also records and graphs this data for you. It comes with quite a few experiments installed and, in the hands of a good Physics teacher, would form the centre of a very interactive unit on motion and movement. I can imagine students the world around grabbing their cellphones to record video of all manner of objects 'bouncing'. Hmmm. Does my glass of chocolate milk fall at the same rate as a bowl of noodles?
It's an easy-to-use tool that allows students to become better askers of questions and designers of experiments instead of becoming better memorisers of someone else's data.

3 comments:

  1. I use Tracker with my Grade 11 Physics students, and it works fairly well. A few things about it are a little difficult for them, but generally they like it.

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  2. Great step #theopensourceschool we admire you...

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