Learning Objects

Learning Object is a general term for a relatively independent…. thing… that is used to help teach and/or learn. I’ve created a couple independently, and also create some as a part of my job. I’m providing here ones that are available to the public.

TideMiner

The TideMiner program calculates flooding frequency and duration using tidal prediction files generated by Tide1 (Micronautics, Inc., Rockport, ME) and other commercial tidal prediction software. The program also works directly with html page files from NOAA’s historic tidal record website. Hydroperiod calculations can be made for an unlimited number of elevations; elevation values may be entered directly, from existing files, or copied from spreadsheets. Results are generated in delimited (*.csv, *.tab, or other custom delimiter) files that may be opened directly by Excel, Lotus, and other spreadsheet programs.

TideMiner was written using MS Visual C++ for Windows(tm). Currently, there is only a Windows version of the program, but if you would like to port it to any other platform(s) we would be happy to provide you with the source code.

There were plans to produce a Java version, but full-time employment has kept me from such a task, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.
Sea Floor Spreading Simulator for PC for Mac

This is a java application to simulate the magnetic striping that results from sea floor spreading combined with magnetic polarity changes. Users may control the shape of the spreading boundary, the rate of spreading, and the time over which the spreading occurs (from 25 mya to present). It’s presented here as a complete application, but the source code is available on request. The PC version is a JAR file, suitable for running in Windows XP. The Mac version a tar file containing a Max Application Bundle, suitable for running in Mac OS X.