Wednesday, 1 March 2017

My Go-To Simulator for Science --- PhET

Have you ever had a great idea right before a lesson and the only thing you were missing was the resources to make that lesson happen? Maybe some HCl? or NaCl? or the proper humidity and temperature settings to catalyze the growth of fully mature poinsettia?

Well I have, a very exciting and free website that was recommended to me, https://phet.colorado.edu/. This website is built and organized through University of Colorado Boulder and it has a vast selection of simulators for the sciences and mathematics courses. It's extremely easy to use and it offers users a variety of variables that they can adjust to a specific concept.

From experience, you cannot build an entire lesson around this but you can offer students a quick opportunity to make sense of concepts introduced in class.

It has been expanding rapidly and is not slowing down.

Enjoy,

Dave
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5 comments:

  1. Unknown1 March 2017 at 22:29

    Hi Dave.
    That is an awesome simulator site. This will be so helpful for my science classes this year. My school never has the materials or resources I need for science experiments and demos in class. I often go to youtube videos for this kind of stuff, but this is much better since you can control it like a virtual experiment. Very good find and thanks so much for sharing. I will try to make it up to you some time if I find a cool resource to share.
    Cheers,
    Robbie

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  2. Unknown2 March 2017 at 04:38

    Hi Dave,

    I was literally just looking at this exact resource. A friend of mine had recommended using it for my science classes. As you say, it is an excellent tool for programs that may have limited resources and/or for those last minute ideas that surface when your lesson takes a new direction.
    Would you suggest using something like this as a flipped classroom?
    Thanks for elaborating on the resource. I will give it a try :)

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  3. Anonymous2 March 2017 at 18:05

    Great resource Dave thanks for sharing. I browsed through some of the content and I can see the innovative teaching and learning opportunities available. I will be using this one fore sure. Thanks

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  4. Unknown3 March 2017 at 14:05

    Hello Dave,
    Thank you for sharing this resource. From what I saw, it offers multiple opportunities for innovative learning and would be a great resource to supplement classroom instruction.

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  5. Anonymous4 March 2017 at 09:12

    Hi Dave,

    Great site! I played around with it and there is lots of potential for various grades. I have already shared it with my colleagues. I could see various student collaborative groups working together through these simulations.

    Thanks for sharing.
    Sara

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