The main thrust of the show concerned the new InterActive Physics 2000 software. Unlike older versions where there are programmed blob masses for collisions and the like, here, one can import pictures and sound to animate in a colorfully humorous way. In a world of video-orientated students, this may be useful. They might be even motivated to affect the programming to include other images, and hence a teacher could make that a project for the students.

The software has 128 canned experiments that increase in complexity as one goes down a particular list for a given experiment. The parameters are easily manipulated. A teacher could easily pre-package his or her own lab that is tailored to a given group of students. One set of tools lets the teacher or even students, if you like, create a system and then run it to see how it operates. An example used here was falling bodies, as well as levers and pulleys. This sort of individualization of a lab could certainly reduce copying!

Also, with these video presentations of the "ideal" world, students could then do experiments, time and materials permitting, of the same idea for comparison. This could lead to discussions of margin of error, areas where friction and the like could be a factor, how to reduce these, etc. For teachers that need writing opportunities in the classroom, this may be an area to explore. As with most software, it is not the program so much as the willingness of the user that makes it effective. The package will work with Windows 95/ Mac 7.1 or newer.