| Students learn about particle families by trying to identify which imaginary particles belong to a family once they have seen four in the top row that do and four in the second row that don't belong to the family. Each game has a new family generated randomly. There are four levels: Introduction, Geometry 1, Geometry 2, and Physics. Students can play up to seven games per level, but they only get scores for the first four games per level. Only the last level contains real physics families. Be sure that your students understand that the first three families are not real physics families. Here's a sample screen. Students click the check boxes at the bottom to choose members of the family. They can click more than one checkbox. Next, they click "Check My Answer". Suli, the young lady in the cartoon, gives them feedback on their progress. She will give them hints after a few unsuccessful tries. The number of tries is displayed. After lots of unsuccessful attempts, students can click Get Answer. The answer supplies more information on why they are members of the family. If they are in the physics level, they can click on Suli to get more information about the Particle Families. |
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| This menu bar is at the bottom of the screen. Choices include:
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ScoringStudents play for Einstein bucks and receive a certificate indicating their score for the teacher. Each level gives a maximum number of points per game and subtracts points for each wrong answer. Students who play the maximum of four games per level and make no mistakes earn 3000 points.
Doubling Your BucksWhen the students are done, they should click Quit Particle Families. They will be asked if they want to double their bucks if haven't already. Next they will be asked if they want to add their score to the high score list. Finally they will be asked if they want to print out their Einstein bucks. They should click Quit Particle Families after each of these is done. Printing the bucks, opens a new window. Printing Your Bucks and CertificateTwo windows are open when students go to print their bucks:
To print the Certificate and Einstein bucks, they need to select the window with the Certificate and select Print under the File menu of their browser. They should cut off the Einstein bucks and give the teacher the certificate so she can record their progress. Diggin' DeeperIf students want to learn more about particle families such as Baryons and Mesons, they can follow the links in Diggin' Deeper. |
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