PhET Blog

We’re excited to add another simulation to our Basics series, designed specifically with middle-school students in mind.

With the new Forces and Motion: Basics simulation, explore the forces at work in a tug of war or by pushing a refrigerator, crate, or person. Create an applied force and see how it makes objects move. Change friction and see how it affects the motion of objects.

Help keep new sims coming: Donate to PhET’s Annual Campaign today.

Have you seen our special 10th Anniversary October 2012 newsletter?

In it, you’ll find all the latest news on new simulations, upcoming events and what’s to come, along with a special interview of Founder and Nobel Laureate, Carl Wieman. Read about how and why he started PhET.

If you didn’t receive it in your e-mail and want future newsletters, sign up at our website.

Build fractions from shapes and numbers to earn stars in this fractions game or explore in the Fractions Lab. Challenge yourself on any level you like. Try to collect lots of stars!

Help keep new sims coming: Donate to PhET’s Annual Campaign today.

Did you try Molecule Shapes or Molecule Shapes: Basics, but couldn’t get it to run on your computer?

Well, try again! We’ve reprogrammed it to work with many older graphics cards. So if you’re still having troubles, please let us know so we can ensure that it works for everyone.

Help bring PhET to tablets: Donate to PhET’s Annual Campaign today.

Listen to our Director, Dr. Kathy Perkins, speak with host Sheela Sethuraman on Social Innovation Conversations. Social Innovations Conversations is part of The Center for Social Innovations, a department at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, that educates leaders to solve the world’s toughest social and environmental issues.

Did you get to listen to PhET on Colorado Public Radio today? If not, listen to how PhET is used in a Colorado Classroom at http://www.cpr.org/#load_article|Science_in_Colorado_Classrooms_Big_Bang_or_Black_Hole_Part_1_Build_An_Atom

On Sept. 17th, Trish Loeblein, PhET K-12 Specialist, participated in a webinar, Learning Through Simulations, that discussed how simulations are used in industry and government, and how schools can use simulations to develop “better employees”. On the CoLearning Network page, scroll down to Previous Webinars to:

9-17-12: Learning Through Simulations
Mike Vaughan, whose company designs complex, extended simulations for companies and organizations, discusses the power of simulations to support “value-skills” learning (decision-making, solving complex problems, and collaboration) through safely real experiences that enable learners to think creatively, collaboratively, and critically.

PhET K-12 Specialist, Trish Loeblein, along with PhET chemists Julia Chamberlain and Emily Moore, will be holding a workshop at the Rocky Mountain Regional ACS Meeting High School Program. The workshop for high school chemistry teachers will be at the Westin on Friday, October 19th from 10 AM to 12 PM. Registration and information is at http://rmrm2012.sites.acs.org/aboutthemeeting.htm .

Using PhET Simulations for High School Chemistry: Free research-based resources on the web

PhET has developed 38 simulations (sims) in chemistry, free at phet.colorado.edu. PhET sims provide interactive environments for students to learn through scientist-like exploration, making the invisible visible and emphasizing connections between real life phenomena and the underlying science. Participants will discuss how to use PhET chemistry sims to enhance student learning and engagement, and will learn where to find hundreds of editable activities online to use with sims in all science disciplines.

See you at VSS 2012 in New Orleans, LA, October 21-24, 2012. Stop by our booth.

Looking for a lesson on projectile motion for middle school? This lesson plan submitted by UTeach at UT-Austin has students investigate how air resistance affects different objects. Lesson objectives include:

• Students will be able to describe projectile motion with no air resistance.
• Students will be able to explain the effect of air resistance on a projectile.
• Students will be able to explain the relationship between shape and air resistance.
• Students will be able to contrast the motion of a projectile without air resistance to motion with air resistance.
• Students will be able to predict the amount of air resistance an object would have relative to other objects.

Standards addressed: TEKS Science: 8.3C, 8.6C CCRS Science Standards: VIII-C1