If you can't do it, fake it

Pop quiz - what are we looking at today?

That's right, it's modelling. In schools, we can use modelling to test scientific theories, or attempt to see in practice processes which would otherwise be unavailable. Certain sites such as Poisson Rouge, or 2Simulate act as virtual resource boxes, giving kids the opportunity to make their own fairy-tale story with puppets of all shapes and sizes! Of course, this can lead to misconceptions about the physical or multi-dimensional aspects of the resources in question, but a good teacher can explain these away, perhaps with other, more readily available resources. These modelling toolboxes can be really helpful to schools which would otherwise struggle to produce practical examples to accompany learning.

Leading on from that, once the children are into the swing of testing things out on the web, they can start writing their own programmes with their own purposes! Logo, for example, is free software wherein children can learn simple programming code to tell the turtle (more like a triangle) which way to go, eventually plotting gradually more complex shapes or patterns. This software in particular ties in well with maths, requiring children to apply their knowledge of rotations and degrees to build the shape they desire. It's all about turning our dreams into reality, and I think that's what we should be telling our classes.

 N.B. This is a turtle, Logo. Look it up ------------->