The Land of Bump is an animated story that introduces the motion of particles related to temperature and energy transfer in an accessible, interactive way. The fancifully illustrated story includes pauses that allow users to predict what will happen next.

There are two sets of main characters: The “Red Hots” like to dance fast; the “Cool Blues” like to dance slow. As the dancers practice on the floor, their motion is reflected on speedometers. The Red Hots and Cool Blues unavoidably bump into each other, causing their speeds to equilibrate to a medium speed. One of the dancers suggests they put a barrier down the middle of the dance floor to separate the two groups. This does not work because the faster dancers bump the barrier, which then bumps the slower dancers and vice versa, causing them all to move at a common speed. Finally a dancer suggests they arrange two parallel barriers separated by empty space, and this solves the problem of the temperature (speed) exchange.

Through this narrative users learn how mixing hot and cool particles results in a common speed through the transfer of energy. They also learn how to insulate the effects of particle interaction using a non-contacting structure. In some scenes the dancers are represented by a scientifically accurate computational model to help users treat this animation as a metaphor.

The Land of Bump was co-designed with the award-winning FableVision multimedia production studio.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant DRL- 1621299. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Instructions

Use the left and right arrows to move through the story. Wait till the arrows turn green before clicking them.

Click the blinking speaker icon to start each scene and hear the narration. Note that there are pauses built in when the narrator asks a question. You can continue after these pauses when the speaker icon starts blinking again, or the arrow on the right becomes green.

A lesson plan for this app is available at http://short.concord.org/89