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One of the areas where I think modern day computer science misses the boat is in the potential for using the computer as an educational tool. Admittedly, my perception may be significantly colored by my not having been in school in any form for almost 30 years, but I can say that a LOT of the applications you saw on computers in the early days of affordable home PC’s were educational programs of one type or another, particularly in the 8-bit era. If you owned a Commodore, TRS-80/Tandy, Atari, Coleco Adam, Texas Instruments, Sinclair, MSX, Apple II, or other 8-bit computer, it was very likely that you would type in programs in BASIC, and a LOT of BASIC programmers put out educational or ‘edutainment’ software.
Even though the computer industry has mostly branched off in other directions, I still enjoy using my computer for ongoing educational purposes, and I’m gratified that Linux is probably better in this respect than MacOS or Windows. KDE Science Applications
Even if we’re running Ubuntu with Unity or GNOME, we can still install and run KDE based applications. From the Synaptics Package Manager store, we can install Kalzium, KGeography, KStars, KDE Marble, and KIG.
Installing from Synaptics Package Manager
In order to install from Synaptics Package Manager, you’ll want to look on the Control Strip on the left-hand side for the symbol that looks like a folder with a superimposed, downward-pointing green arrow:
In the Synaptics Package Manager window, click Search at the top and type in Kalzium. Once the application finds Kalzium, click the box for both the application and its selection of data (see image below)
This will bring up a menu allowing you to ‘mark’ the application and data for installation. Confirm in the dialog box that you want to install those marked changes, then click Apply at the top of the window. Click Apply in the dialog box that comes up, and the Package Manager will download and install Kalzium for you. You can repeat this process for KStars, KGeography, and KIG. KDE Marble and its data package will appear in Synaptic Package Manager as simply ‘Marble’.
Kalzium
Kalzium shows a representation of the Periodic Table of the Elements. While we look at it, sing along to the tune of ‘Modern Major General’s Song’ from ‘Pirates of Penzance’.
Here’s the main initial interface:
Now, we’ll click on Sb, the symbol for Antimony, and we’ll get this detail screen for Antimony’s properties: As you can see, we get a LOT of useful information about Antimony. This is a great little application for chemistry students (although it probably won’t help you learn The Element Song. It is up on YouTube for anyone who wants to give it a go….)
KDE Marble
The KDE Marble application shows you a representation of a world globe:
By spinning the globe using the mouse and using the Zoom function represented on the right of the screen, I found my last Plano, TX (Dallas suburb) apartment, down to the actual building, on the Open Street Map globe (middle)
There are also fascinating globe representations like Earth at Night, showing Earth’s city lights, and the Historical Map 1689 (top right).
There are also precipitation and temperature maps, along with political maps. All things considered, a useful and interesting application with impressive capabilities!
Next month: We’ll continue looking at more science applications.