Folding&g: a research program transformed into a program for teaching

The program Folding&g was developed originally as a research tool in Structural Geology. Its adjustment to the environment of Windows 98-Me has simplified its utilization and permits its use as a didactic resource for teaching the process of natural folding. The program simulates the formation of folds developed by buckling, which appear at many scales from microscopic to kilometric, and are one of the most common geological structures. Different physical parameters, including, size, viscosity, either linear or power-law, and strain rate, and one or several competent layers, are introduced by the user to build a model that is shortened laterally to obtain folds of variable geometry, their characteristics depending on the parameters chosen. The program Folding&g is designed to be used as part of the exercises in elementary and advanced courses of Structural Geology, depending on the students' curricula. For relatively simple models, it may also be used in a course of elementary Geology, as well as to train future teachers in Natural Sciences. The use of the program increases the efficiency of learning, since it may develop the abstraction ability necessary to understand key aspects of the process it simulates, upon increasing the attention of the students, their receptivity, their judgement and reasoning. That is to say, it favors and increases meaningful learning.