PhET Blog

Join Trish Loeblein Monday, July 13, 2015 8:00 PM EDT during a free webinar for the AAPT eMentoring program. Any one is welcome to attend. The AAPT eMentoring program is designed to connect high-school physics educators who desire additional guidance with experienced high-school physics educators. It is a free service that will enable colleagues to connect and learn regionally and nationally.

Join WebEx meeting: https://goo.gl/326YCQ
Meeting number: 730 348 181
Meeting password: aapt

Note: You will be prompted to enter your name and an e-mail. You probably will not need to enter any meeting number or password, but they are provided for your reference.

We are busy working this summer to have more HTML5 sims ready for the 2015-2016 school year, as well as many other improvements to our website and teacher support and development.

Enjoy the summer! And, keep up-to-date with the latest at PhET on our social media sites including PhET’s Blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

We’re going to be at ISTE 2015 in Philadelphia, PA June 28-July 1. Come by our Booth #147 and see the latest HTML5 PhET simulations and the exciting developments coming up in 2015-2016.

University of Colorado Boulder Prof. Ed Kinney uses PhET’s Wave on a String to teach principles of sound in his popular physics course, Sound and Waves. In the course, students learn what happens to the waves as they move through the air from a speaker or musical instrument into the ear and vibrate the parts of the inner ear. Kinney says that PhET sims such as Wave on a String show changes and movement of sound through time better than a still image: “There’s not a still picture in a book that you can get across what is happening in real time when sound waves come into your ear.  Still pictures don’t convey the understanding.”

Read more here: https://sparc.colorado.edu/kinneys-simulations-support-learning-complex-physics-concepts/

Have an inspirational PhET story? Has PhET changed how you teach? How your students learn? Inspired a student’s interest in STEM?

We are looking for a few personal stories to share with people around the world to capture how PhET simulations impact you or your students. Help us by filling out this short questionnaire. If your story is selected, we’ll contact you for more information, and feature you in our newsletters and blogs.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Share your story here: https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aarTABodHFOjXEh

Thanks to all who voted!

PhET received all 3 awards in the NSF 2015 Teaching and Learning Video Showcase: Presenters’ choice, Facilitators’ choice, and Public choice.

We couldn’t have won without you!

We are excited to now have individual HTML5 sim pages where you can easily access sample learning goals (under About), Teacher Tips and Activities (under For Teachers), Related Simulations, and Software Requirements. With the new pulldown menus, everything about the simulation is on a single screen. There’s also a link to conveniently access the corresponding original JAVA/Flash sims and their translations.

And don’t forget to help bring more improvements and HTML5 sims by donating at:

DONATE NOW

All donations are tax deductible.
Thanks for your support!

Have you seen our Spring 2015 newsletter? We’re looking for inspirational stories on how PhET has affected you, or your students. Share them with us here. And, learn about new websites improvements that we’ll be rolling out over the summer.

Join Director, Kathy Perkins, and 90 other participants of the Learning Sciences and Online Learning Symposium on May 21-22, 2015. The symposium will be livestreamed at: http://lsol.mit.edu/live/. Sessions begin at 9am EDT on Thursday, May 21 and run through 12:30pm EDT on Friday, May 22. Ask questions via the web or from Twitter using the hashtag #LSOL2015.

The ability to balance chemical equations is a foundational skill in chemistry. This week Yuen-ying Carpenter, Emily Moore, and Director, Kathy Perkins will be available to discuss employing guided-inquiry activities along with PhET simulations to teach students skills in balancing chemical equations. Please join the discussion at http://confchem.ccce.divched.org/2015SpringConfChem

Using an Interactive Simulation to Support Development of Expert Practices for Balancing Chemical Equations