Creating a simulation is two paid steps with a decision between them. The plan is cheap and the build is not, which is the whole reason they are separate: reading a plan and rejecting it should not cost what building it costs.
1. Describe the principle
Open Simulations in your classroom and select New simulation. Write what you would like learners to work out.
One principle is enough, and the best ones are the kind a learner can verify by changing a value. Compare:
- "Show how compound interest works" gives the planner very little to hold on to.
- "Where the rate and the term make compound interest pull away from simple interest" names the thing to be discovered and the values that reveal it.
2. Read the plan
TutorFlow writes the plan and takes you to the editor. This step costs 1 credit.
The plan is worth a minute of your attention, because it is where a wrong simulation is cheapest to catch:
- What it computes. The quantities tracked and the rule that advances them. If this describes something other than the principle you meant, stop here.
- What you can change. Each control with its range and starting value, and what moving it does.
- What to work out. The questions a learner should answer by moving the controls. If any of them can be answered by reading a number off the screen, it is not doing its job.
If the plan is wrong, ask for another one rather than building it.
3. Build
Select Build this. This step costs 12 credits and takes a few minutes.
TutorFlow writes the page, validates it, then runs it and drives each control from one end of its range to the other. If the picture does not respond, the version is rejected and rebuilt rather than handed to you.
After the build
The simulation opens in the editor with its plan, its version history, and a chat box for changes. See Edit and share a simulation.
Before learners see it
Open it once yourself and move every control. The automatic check confirms the page responds; it does not confirm the arithmetic is right, and it does not know what your class is ready for.