Bree Emily Moore

• Curtin University

Sensory extensions enhance our awareness by transforming variations in stimuli normally undetectable by human senses into perceivable outputs. Similarly, interactive simulations for learning promote an understanding of abstract phenomena. Combining sensory extension devices with interactive simulations gives users the novel opportunity to connect t...

With the growing presence of auditory display in popular learning tools, it is beneficial to researchers to consider not only the perceptions of the students who use the tools, but the educators who include the tools in their curriculum. We surveyed over 4000 educators to investigate educator perceptions and preferences across four interactive phys...

Interactive simulations are tools that can help students understand and learn about complex relationships. While most simulations are primarily visual due to mostly historical reasons, sounds can be used to add to the experience. In this work, we evaluated sets of audio designs for two different, but contextually- and visually-similar simulations....

The PhET project is a collection of over 130 interactive simulations (or “sims”) designed to teach physics concepts to students from elementary to university levels. The sims rely heavily on visual representation, making them inaccessible to students with disabilities, including those with visual impairments. We present the theory, methods, and pro...

We present a multimodal science simulation, including visual and auditory (descriptions, sound effects, and sonifications) display. The design of each modality is described, as well as evaluation with learners with and without visual impairments. We conclude with challenges and opportunities at the intersection of multiple modalities.

Interactive science simulations are commonly used educational tools that, unfortunately, present many challenges for robust accessibility. The PhET Interactive Simulations project creates a suite of widely used HTML5 interactive science simulations and has been working to advance the accessibility of these simulations for users of alternative input...

Over more than a decade, the PhET Interactive Simulations project has created a suite of interactive simulations (sims) that support learning of science and mathematics content through exploration and discovery. Here we describe the state of the art in interactive science simulations, historical innovations that enabled this state, and current init...

Interactive simulations are used in classrooms around the world to support student learning. Creating accessible interactive simulations is a complex challenge that pushes the boundaries of current accessibility approaches and standards. In this work, we present a new approach to addressing accessibility needs within complex interactives. Within a...

The PhET Interactive Simulations project has begun an initiative to increase the accessibility of its suite of science simulations. In this work, we focus on use of the PhET sim Capacitor Lab: Basics by two visually impaired learners. Comparing responses to pre and posttest questions about capacitance and circuits, our results indicate that after u...

Interactive simulations are increasingly important in science education, yet most are inaccessible to blind learners. We demonstrate an accessible version of a simulation, Balloons and Static Electricity, that illustrates responses to key challenges in providing screen reader support: the need to describe unpredictable sequences of events, the mani...

Interactive computer simulations are effective learning tools commonly used in science education; however, they are inaccessible to many students with disabilities. In this paper, we present initial findings from the design and implementation of accessibility features for the PhET Interactive Simulation, Balloons and Static Electricity. Our focus:...

Interactive science simulations are commonly used educational tools. PhET Interactive Simulations are a popular suite of free science simulations used by teachers and students worldwide. These simulations are designed using implicit scaffolding, a design framework developed by the PhET project. Implicit scaffolding supports student learning without...

An in-class guided-inquiry activity utilizing feedback from a PhET interactive simulation offers an opportunity to foster student learning via an inquiry-based approach. Here, student groups in a preparatory chemistry course leveraged representations in the Balancing Chemical Equations simulation to define and develop successful practices for nonre...

The PhET Interactive Simulations project has engaged in a new initiative to develop inclusive features for the suite of PhET simulations. These features are designed to increase the accessibility of the simulations for students and teachers, with and without disabilities. This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the Interactive Vi...

The chemistry education community has a strong history of using visualizations in teaching and learning chemistry. The spring 2015 online ConfChem conference, Interactive Visualizations for Teaching and Learning Chemistry, presented work in the areas of design, evaluation, and frontiers of interactive visualizations. The conference was held from Ma...

This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the Interactive Visualizations for Chemistry Teaching and Learning ACS CHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education online ConfChem held from May 8 to June 4, 2015. Mr. Paul Grossman, Chief Regional Attorney (retired), Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Education, succ...

Currently, there exists a lack of consensus regarding the types and purposes of scaffolding features within the educational design community. In this work, we seek to establish a common framework of scaffolding types as a grounded reference for researchers and designers of computer-based learning environments. We looked to three successful computer...

Interactive simulations are becoming increasingly important in education, but these tools are not accessible to many learners. Here, we share some goals to guide the development of accessible simulations, and summarize early findings in development efforts. We also highlight challenges and opportunities where the unique expertise of the ASSETS comm...

During use of touch-screen tablet devices, the user's hand can occlude regions of the screen. Here, we present results from an exploratory study of hand orientation and occlusion among American primary school students using a touch-screen tablet device. We investigated hand orientations, amount of occlusion, and the effects of tablet tilt angle (fl...

Developing fluency across symbolic-, macroscopic-, and particulate-level representations is central to learning chemistry. Within the chemistry education community, animations and simulations that support multi-representational fluency are considered critical. With advances in the accessibility and sophistication of technology, interactive computer...

Since its inception in 2002, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder has developed over 125 interactive simulations to advance science education. In addition to the goal of promoting student conceptual understanding of science, PhET simulations aim to engage students in scientific exploration and to increase s...

We build on theoretical foundations of tool-mediated learning, tool design, and human computer interaction to develop a framework for implicit scaffolding in learning environments. Implicit scaffolding employs affordances, constraints, cueing, and feedback in order to frame and scaffold student exploration without explicit guidance, and it is a par...

As the use of computer-based science simulations in educational environments grows, so too does the need for research on productive use of simulations. This paper presents ways to create effective assignments that accompany an interactive simulation in a variety of educational environments. A framework that supports the creation of assignments with...

We present the results of a study designed to provide insight into interactive simulation use during guided-inquiry activities in chemistry classes. The PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado develops interactive simulations that utilize implicit – rather than explicit – scaffolding to support student learning through ex...

We use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the coexistence between confined ice and liquid water as a function of temperature for a series of cylindrical nanopores with water–wall interactions ranging from strongly hydrophilic to very hydrophobic. In agreement with previous results from experiments, we find that the ice formed in the nano...

Ice crystallized below 200 K has the diffraction pattern of a faulty cubic ice, and not of the most stable hexagonal ice polymorph. The origin and structure of this faulty cubic ice, presumed to form in the atmosphere, has long been a puzzle. Here we use large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with the mW water model to investigate the crystalli...

One of water's unsolved puzzles is the question of what determines the lowest temperature to which it can be cooled before freezing to ice. The supercooled liquid has been probed experimentally to near the homogeneous nucleation temperature, T(H) ≈ 232 K, yet the mechanism of ice crystallization-including the size and structure of critical nuclei-h...

One of water's unsolved puzzles is the question of what determines the lowest temperature to which it can be cooled before freezing to ice. The supercooled liquid has been probed experimentally to near the homogeneous nucleation temperature TH{\approx}232 K, yet the mechanism of ice crystallization - including the size and structure of critical nuc...

The crystallization of water at 180 K is studied through large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with the monatomic water model mW. This temperature is in the middle of water's "no-man's land," where rapid ice crystallization prevents the elucidation of the structure of liquid water and its transformation into ice with state of the art experimen...

The nucleation, growth, structure and melting of ice in 3 nm diameter hydrophilic nanopores are studied through molecular dynamics simulations with the mW water model. The melting temperature of water in the pore was T(m)(pore) = 223 K, 51 K lower than the melting point of bulk water in the model and in excellent agreement with experimental determi...

The evolution of the structure of water from the stable high temperature liquid to its glass, low-density amorphous ice (LDA), is studied through large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with the mW model [J. Phys. Chem. B 113, 4008 (2009)]. We characterize the density, translational, and orientational ordering of liquid water from the high tempe...

Water and silicon are chemically dissimilar substances with common physical properties. Their liquids display a temperature of maximum density, increased diffusivity on compression, and they form tetrahedral crystals and tetrahedral amorphous phases. The common feature to water, silicon, and carbon is the formation of tetrahedrally coordinated unit...

Propagation margins of contiguous disk devices fabricated on both single- and double-layer garnet films have been measured. These performance measurements for 1-µm diameter magnetic bubble propagation were made on devices with cell sizes of 18 and 30 µm². The dependence of bias margin on ion-implantation conditions, material parameters,...

We have observed that thicker than normal LPE bubble garnet films (14–17 μm) have lower coercivity than those of normal thickness (3–5 μm). We have investigated this thickness dependence of 4 film compositions in the SmCaGe garnet system. In thin films, coercivity is dominated by a high coercivity region near the substrate. As the film thickness in...

We have studied the dynamic properties of bubbles in a series of oxygen‐annealed EuGaYIG films which have similar magnetic properties except for decreasing uniaxial anisotropy as a function of anneal time. The translational saturation velocity and skew angle of bubbles translated in a pulsed gradient field experiment increase as the anisotropy decr...

This paper reports on the lowering of Q by thermal annealing and its effect on hard bubble suppression, control of bubble states, and reduction of coercivity. Garnet films of nominal composition Y2.35Eu0.65Ga1.2Fe3.8O12 were annealed in either nitrogen or oxygen atmospheres. Annealing in N2 at 1250°C yields almost identical reduction in Q value o...

Propagation margins of contiguous disk devices fabricated on both single- and double-layer garnet jilms have been measured. These performance measurements for I-pm diameter magnetic bubble propagation were made on devices with cell sizes of 18 and 30 pm2. The dependence of bias margin on ion-implantation conditions, material parameters, propagation...

Safety and cost information is developed for the conceptual decommissioning of five different types of independent spent-fuel-storage installations (ISFSIs), each of which is being given consideration for long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel in the United States. These include one water basin-type ISFSI (wet) and four dry ISFSIs (drywell, silo,...

Safety and cost information is developed for the conceptual decommissioning of five different types of reference independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs), each of which is being given consideration for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel in the United States. These include one water basin-type ISFSI (wet) and four dry ISFSIs (drywell...

Subject to frequent and devastating fires the New Jersey pine region is one of the "hot spots" of the Northeast. Scrub forest with tall resinous-leaved shrubs and heavy accumulations of duff present dangerous fuel conditions. Long fire seasons, few obstructions to wind and soils that dry readily add to the hazard. Disastrous fires as a consequence...