The gait e-book – Development of effective participatory learning using simulation and active electronic books

Abstract

In this paper we outline an interactive electronic book that teaches high school students about human locomotion. Today the most common teaching methods are lectures or reading a static textbook where the student’s participation is passive and they do not engage in the learning process. When learning about human gait, students not only learn anatomy and kinesiology but also have the opportunity to grasp theoretical subjects such as mathematics, physics, biomechanics as well as concepts of modeling and simulation to carry out experiments. In this paper we outline an interactive electronic book where the student becomes engaged in the learning processes, they can add/remove text, images, video, create models and perform simulation in one environment. The Gait E-book combines the theoretical lecture with the interactive learning process of modeling and simulation. Two different simulation platforms will be supported in the E-book, OpenModelica and OpenSim. Modelica is a powerful modern equation based simulation language where students can focus on learning mathematical and physical behavior. The E-book is fully integrated with the OpenModelica environment which is the major Modelica open source implementation. To support musculoskeletal biomechanics, the E-book will be integrated with a subset of the functionality from the open source OpenSim modeling and simulation environment. Students will be able to create models, and carry out simulation both in Modelica and OpenSim in the same interactive notebook and from these results create both interactive 3D visualization and scientific visualization that give them the ability to understand the underlying biomechanics of human gait. The high school Gait Ebook edition will cover subjects such as, the gait cycle including the tasks of weight acceptance, single limb swing, limb advancement as well as gait kinematics and kinetics and muscle activity. Students will study physical subjects such as, mass, velocity acceleration, gravity, torque, kinetic and potential energy, lever arms, pendulums, conservation of energy, Newton’s laws and spring-mass systems.