Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (K-MODDL)

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

This Collections project is aggregating educational materials associated with the 220 late 19th-century model machine elements designed for research and teaching by the founder of modern kinematics, Franz Reuleaux (1829-1905). Resources of the collection include still and navigable moving images of these kinematic teaching models; systematic descriptions, and historical and contemporary documents related to the collection of the mechanisms; computer simulations of mathematical relationships associated with the movements of the mechanisms, and sample teaching modules that employ the models and simulations in the classroom at the undergraduate, secondary and middle school levels. The use of physical models in teaching mathematics, science, and engineering is recognized as an important component of visual thinking, and as essential to the cognitive foundations of mathematical activity and in the transition to an algebraic description of functions. This project illustrates the fruitful marriage of museum quality physical artifacts with the potential of digital media, and enables a much broader audience to access the benefits of using the physical models than only those who can physically visit the resources.