PhET Blog

Read about how PhET Makes Learning Science Fun on the National Science Foundation’s Science, Engineering and Education (SEE) Innovations website.

“The PhET project’s main goals are to make science accessible, understandable and fun. In the new ‘Build A Molecule’ simulation, for example, students learn as they play. They discover that collections of atoms create molecules; that the number, type, and order of the atoms matter; and that the ‘twos’ in 2CO2 mean different things. Students build connections that provide a key foundation to understanding chemistry–connections between chemical names, chemical symbols, atomic arrangements and molecule shapes. In a recent study, fifth-grade students using the simulation demonstrated that they had learned these ideas–ideas that have been documented as difficult even at the college level.”

PhET Simulations are used not only in the United States, but also around the world. Rollan Inis from the Tagum City National High School in Tagum City, Philippines writes that Philippine teachers from remote “barangays” will be using the offline installation of PhET to “teach science in a very interesting manner.” In addition, PhET was used at a Grade 8 teacher training program held by the Department of Education.

Thanks Rollan for spreading the word on how PhET can enhance science and math learning in schools around the world.

Do you have a story on how PhET sims are being used? Please e-mail Kathy at [email protected].

PhET Interactive Simulations is now on Wikipedia at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhET_Interactive_Simulations

We worked on the article through a Peer to Peer University School of Open Education Program:Peer to Peer University/Writing Wikipedia Articles. Thanks #WIKISOO for helping us get PhET into Wikipedia.

Even though school’s ending, PhET will be hard at work over the summer upgrading the simulations for the new school year. And, right now, user donations are our key source of funding towards converting simulations to HTML5 and bringing them to iPad and Android tablets. So please help support our summer vacation work and give the gift of learning.

Donate today. And, thank you to those of you who have already donated. Your support will help keep our work funded through the summer.

Raining outside? Can’t get to the skate park? Learn about energy conservation while playing in this virtual skate park. Keep learning over the summer with this fun simulation.