As part of my action research project for my Master of Natural Science degree from Arizona State University (home of Modeling Instruction), my research partner Mr. Wirth and I looked at how we could apply computational modeling at several key points in the curriculum to improve students’ understanding of physics.
We worked with a small sample group, but we had some promising results. Spreadsheets allowed students to solve more complex problems than can typically be solved in a first-year physics course. Spreadsheets freed students a bit to think about the problem rather than focusing on the computation, though learning to graph and write equations in excel was challenging.
You can find our complete report here.