Animations and simulations

Animations and simulations offer new and exciting ways of bringing science to life. A range of software products are available to produce animations and simulations without the need for specialist programming skills; these include MS Excel and MS PowerPoint.

CELS has been working collaboratively with the HEA Physical Sciences Centre, and in particular the Animations and Simulations group. In April 2008, CELS hosted a meeting of the Animations and Simulations Special Interest Group and provided a hands-on workshop, in which delegates created their own animations. This well-received workshop was offered as a self-study CD-Rom containing a mixture of step-by-step guides, videos and exemplar animations.

The resource is still available, by request, and covers the following three methods of creating animations and simulations:

• MS Excel spreadsheets can be enhanced with 'Forms' controls allowing the author to add scrollbars and dropdown menus. Adding such controls to a spreadsheet allows a greater level of interactivity when adjusting key variables.
• MS Powerpoint (2003) contains a wealth of motion and transition effects. By layering images and triggering events at different times, it is possible to create some complex animations.
• Many interactive websites use animations created using Adobe Flash; this professional and expensive software enables the user to produce exciting and interactive resources for students to help them visualise subject matter, enhancing the learning experience.
  SwishMax is an alternative, and relatively inexpensive, Flash creation tool. Resources included on the CELS modelling disk, show how quickly an interactive model of Boyles Law can be created and published for the web or intranet site.

If you would like to request a copy of the CELS modelling disk, please do so by email.