TYCHO
INTERACTIVE EXAMPLE
Interactive examples ("i.e.") are "multi-step" problems that we hope can be used to help students develop problem-solving strategies. The idea is that "help" is given usually in the form of additional questions, whose answers can then be used to calculate the answer to the original question. For example, consider the following example:
If the student cannot see how to solve this problem, she can click on the Help button that will then append the following:
Thus the original problem has been reduced to finding the charge on C4. This problem is still not that easy, and the student may ask for further Help which results in the following addition to the student's screen:
Note that at this point, there is no help available for this multiple-choice question. The student must choose an answer; the computer's response will differ for INCORRECT and CORRECT answers. In particular, the student will see:
Note that if the student gets the correct answer, another question is asked. In this case, the answer will be revealed when the student clicks the Enter button. Of course, if the student can now figure out now how to answer the earlier questions (Q4 and V4), she can go ahead and do it! If not, more help is available (the student is asked to try to calculate V34 and finally Cab) until we finally give away the store:
The student can now work her way back up the chain until she finally answers correctly the initial question.
Note that once the initial question has been answered correctly, a RECAP of the strategy is displayed. the student can then click Enter to continue to some FOLLOW-UP questions.
There, that's it! We hope that you can use these interactive examples to learn the physics. We have tried to make the navigation intuitive. If you get stuck or find the interaction confusing, please send mail to the instructor. Enjoy!!