PhET Blog

We’re excited to add our last Java-based simulation, Energy Forms and Changes. Explore how heating and cooling iron, brick, and water adds or removes energy. See how energy is transferred between objects. Build your own system, with energy sources, changers, and users. Track and visualize how energy flows and changes through your system.

We will be upgrading the PhET server on Friday, April 19 at 5:30 PM Mountain Daylight Time. During this time, PhET (http://phet.colorado.edu) will experience periods of unavailability. We expect that the outage will last only 30 minutes and that we will be back online very quickly. However, if you experience issues, please e-mail the PhET Help Desk at [email protected].

Thanks for your patience during our system upgrade.

We’ve been busy working on making our simulations iPad compatible. We hope to have a number of them ready over the summer so they will be available for the 2013-2014 school year, including Build an Atom, Concentration, and Ohm’s Law.

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

Donate Now to help support iPad compatibility!

In the middle of modern physics? Try our “Intro to Photoelectric Effect Interactive Lecture.” These lecture notes include many concept questions and an interactive lecture demo, for a 2-3 day introduction to the Photoelectric Effect.

In a new report by the Software & Information Industry Association, “Guide to the Use of Open Educational Resources in K-12 and Postsecondary Education,” open educational resources, like PhET are “here to stay.” This white paper from the SIIA’s Education Division’s working group was written to provide an increased understanding of OER’s impact and usage in schools.

Ever wonder how a new simulation is created? In this new video PhET: Research and Development, you can see what’s behind the development of a PhET simulation and how we use research to enhance learning. Learn how we choose what topic to address, all the way through to how we test our simulations.

With the new “Acceleration Lab” tab in the Forces and Motion: Basics simulation, students use an acceleration meter and a bucket of water to explore the concepts of speed, acceleration and net force, and learn how they relate to Newton’s Second Law of Motion: F=ma.

PhET is one of many providers of “Open Educational Resources” (OER) and is a big supporter of the larger open education movement. This week brings many opportunities to learn more about OER projects and the opportunity for OER to impact teaching and learning worldwide. See their list of events here:

http://www.openeducationweek.org/events-webinars/

We’re excited to announce that PhET is now a 100Kin10 Partner. 100Kin10 is a multi-sector partnership addressing the national imperative to train 100,000 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers by 2021. See the press release here.