Scott Sinex, professor of physical sciences and engineering at Prince George’s Community College and co-PI of the PREM involving Prince George’s Community College, Howard University and the Johns Hopkins University was acknowledged by the Krell Institute and the Department of Energy, for developing interactive spreadsheets teaching materials science and chemistry Sinex’s interactive spreadsheets, called Excelets, allow numerical experimentation and "what if" modeling.
They are “Javaless” applets, powerful learning tools for students using readily available software.
In making the award, Chuck Swanson, Director of the UCES Award Program said, "Using a spreadsheet provides an easy introduction to computational methods in science without requiring knowledge of a programming language” The Materials Science Excelets are being used worldwide.
The Materials Science and Chemistry Excelets can be downloaded from the web, along with a tutorial showing how to build your own.http://www.psc.edu/eot/k12/DevelopersGuidetoExcelets2007.pdf
Materials science Excelets are available at http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex/excelets/matsci_excelets.htm Chemistry Excelets are available at
http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex/excelets/chem_excelets.htm