Virtual Strategy Board
You have all seen those magnetic boards with little rock magnets on them, right? They're used for discussing basic rules of play and end-by-end game strategy. They're perfect if you have three or four people sitting around a table. But what happens if you happen to be teaching a class of thirty people? What then? They just can't see that tiny little board.
strategy.htm (picture above)
run the demo from this web site, or right click and save locally.
It's not uncommon for an instructor to be teaching with a computer and presentation software. I won't say "power point" because you'll fall asleep immediately. So I've been able to replace the magnetic board (or flip charts, or markers and whiteboards) with a simple web application that doesn't do anything. Just start the application and it draws one end of a curling sheet. There are eight red and eight yellow rocks you can drag and drop with your mouse. That's it. There's no logic, no "save me" feature, no customization, no personalization, no adding of comments, just a playing field and some rocks.
With a tiny bit of up-front work on your part it will run locally on most computers or tablets. The internet is not always available, or reliable, so to run this demo locally, you simply need to download the one and only web page itself. That's all, just download it and double click it. (Hint... It also runs faster)
Additional notes and comments are located here.
Other uses? It seems as if an older version of my page or code has had a snapshot taken, and embedded in a youTube video. I am delighted that somebody found another good use for it! You can see it in action Understanding Mixed Doubles Curling Starting at 1:01 into the video, and again at 2:29.