Summary

This a digital copy of a VHS recording of Geelong Grammar preparatory students. Researcher Liddy Nevile was conducting observations of how students use computers. It is one of a series of such recordings. In this recording, Nick Hutchins, an 8 year old in 4C class, talks to Liddy about how a projectile moves through the air and descends. He also draws a picture of his predictions.

The video then cuts to a group of three boys working on a BBC micro-computer to test this hypothesis. The boys program a screen object to act as an arrow or ball. They wrestle with the idea that it is not that a ball travels half the intended distance, calculates what angle to turn, and then completes the travel. This is not right because how does the ball know how far to go, how far to turn and, significantly, because they do not see things in real life traveling in straight lines. Instead, they discover something is constantly lowering the height of the moving object resulting in it traveling. The culprit turns out to be what we call gravity.

This audio file forms part of the Sunrise Collection which includes educational robots, software and multimedia recordings of teachers and students exploring new possibilities with computer programming.

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