One of my favorite internet activities is accidentally discovering interesting web-based tools, apps that speak to me as having potential for open education. So not full fledged licensed, 5 R stamped OERs, but perhaps things that potentially could me, with some educator created context.
I typically bookmark and tag them in Pinboard as cooltech but in Alan’s ongoing efforts to generate discussions / sharing here in OEG Connect, I am trying a new effort each week to share one per week as a Friday Find. I invite anyone else to reply or post their own (and it need not be on Friday).
This first example was built by Brooklyn based coder Neal Agarwal and is called Asteroid Launcher. This simulation let’s you choose the features of an extraterrestrial object that hits the earth (type of body, diameter, velocity, and impact angle). Then you use a map to pick a location where it hits. The results then provide graphs and data on the effects of this impact.
I did not want to target an inhabited place, so I chose a relatively unpopulated location in eastern California where I did field work for my Masters in Geology, just north of Bishop California.
I had tried a few variations, my settings here were a bit more on the more catastrophic side!
After launching the asterioid, I first get data on the size of the crater it creates.
I am not too sure about there being 137 people there in the middle of the Volcanic Tableland, but that’s one huge crater!
As I scroll down the right side of the displayed, I get more stats on the fireball created, winds generated, and earthquakes that would reach far to populated areas on the west coast.
It’s impressive for what it can demonstrate, and from the info box, it’s based on published research:
The simulation is based on papers by Dr. Gareth Collins and Dr. Clemens Rumpf.
Sources
Asteroid impact risk
Earth Impact Effects Program
Population Vulnerability Models for Asteroid Impact Risk Assessment
The Effects of Nuclear Weapons. Third editionFEMA Blast Effects
Gridded Population of the World v4
Besides the “fun” of seeing the effects of sending an asteroid to some location, I can see much potential in testing hypotheses of how the variables effect the impact, considering the implications of events on society, damage assessment… well I imagine someone could create many kinds of lessons out of this.
Is it pure OER? Not yet, but it offers a tremendous amount of potential…
Credits: I suggest also sharing how/where you found a shared item. I saw this in a tweet from @ResearchBuz or Tara Calashain, someone who I have been getting sharing web resources since the late 1990s. See, twitter is not all catastrophe!
What do you think? Do you have something “neat” or “cool” to share? That’s what I hope we can stimulate here in OEG Connect.