Dave Richards
Bright Ideas Software^®

OneStone^® Pebbles are a new series of calculus visualization tools developed by Bright Ideas Software^®. Designed from the ground up with input from education professionals, these unique tools meld current educational theory with state of the art graphics technology in consistent, easy-to-use packages. Each "Pebble" in the series is a stand-alone program designed to illustrate a specific topic in the calculus syllabus. Read the instructions for installation and usage that follow, and click on any of the topics in the list to go to that Pebble.

Note that all links below are to a site (brightideassoftware.com) external to MathDL Loci. Visit that site for more information on the overall project.

Installation

Click here to read about using OneStone^® Pebbles for the first time.

Instructions for Using OneStone^® Pebbles

Click here to open instructions in a new window.

Topics List

Click on any of the links below to open the Pebble in a new window.

• Contour Diagrams
• Curve Families
• Surface of Revolution

Designed to Stimulate a Deep Understanding of Dynamic Relationships

While the topic of each Pebble is different, the experience of using each remains as constant as possible, and features several elements identified as contributing to the development of a deeper understanding of dynamic covariant relationships; e.g.:

• The user is given control of the experience. This is achieved at several levels; for instance, rather than displaying illustrations/animations of pre-defined functions, Pebbles display representations of arbitrary user-defined expressions.
• High quality graphics are used to depict the user-defined expression. To be fully effective as an illustration of a dynamic system, and to truly trigger deeper insight into a given covariant relationship, the graphics technology employed must be capable of smooth animation and realistic enough so as not to distract the eye, and mind, from the mathematical relationship being illustrated. Realistic lighting and shading effects are essential to this goal, exploiting innate human capabilities to gather information visually.
• Information is simultaneously presented in multiple formats. Adding a three dimensional display teases minds with possibilities beyond normal expectations, even with topics historically treated exclusively with two dimensional visualizations.