Content Objects
Okay for the assignment this week I choose to do content objects because I knew of a few resources online but I thought there has to be more and I really don't have the time to research them much because I am teaching full time. So I took the opportunity this week to try to find some more resources that I didn't already know about. It was a great experience and I want to share some of the resources that I found.
So first I think that I need to tell you that I teach physics which is a great subject that lends itself well to simulations. This was the first one that I explored. There is the website PHET. Which stands for physics education technology. I already kind of knew about this website but I have not taken the time to really explore all that it has to offer until this week. Let me tell you it was an eye opening experience. It has all kinds of resources that I didn't know about. I mean there are the simulations themselves which are great and help students visualize things that are too hard or to expensive for a teacher to do in a standard class but there are also teacher collaborations on how to best use them in the class. They have under each and every simulation even whole lesson plans on how to best use the simulations. I think this is a great resource for not only help students visualize but also help teachers know how to best use the resource. Here is the link to the website if you would like to explore it yourself. https://phet.colorado.edu/
The next one that I explored was https://www.physicsclassroom.com/. I did know about this one before this research but it quickly came up in a google search of physics classroom resources. This a great resource for teachers. They not only have several simulations like they do one PHET but they also have mini readings like they would in a textbook. They are called tutorials on the website. Then after the readings they have mini quizzes that can help students understand wither or not the actually understand the topic from the readings. They also have what they call concept builders which are programs the run in your browser that are essentially little quizzes that help students to learn any physics concept that they would encounter in a high school physics class. They also have printable worksheets that teachers can use to review their students on a given topic. Overall this website is set up almost so that if you wanted to you could teach yourself pretty much every thing that you would cover in a high school physics class. It is an amazing resource that I can't believe that I didn't know it existed before now. If any of you are physics teachers you defiantly should take some time to check this website out.
The last one that I explored this week, because the other two had me at their websites for hours looking at all the resources that were there, was the AAPT website. If you don't know the AAPT is the american association of physics teachers. This website naturally would have a bunch of resources for physics teachers. Which it does. I think this website is really good for the modern physics information like what is happening in physics now and how we can get our students exited about it and how we can explain it to them. One of the first resources that I looked at was this https://www.aapt.org/Resources/Teaching-the-Science-Behind-the-2018-Nobel-Prize.cfm how to teach the physics behind the nobel prize from this year. I think this is great and something that we really need as physics teacher to do is to teach what is happening in physics today. I think quite often especially in high school physics teachers are really just teaching the physics from about 400 years ago and we really never have time to get to the modern, in my opinion more interesting, physics that is happening right now. This was the main and best part about this website.
Overall each of these website/resources can easily have a place in the classroom. I think that the PHET website would be a great place fore teachers to go to get experiments that can't really be done in a classroom but they students could still have a "hand on experience" that would greatly help their understanding of the material. I think the physics classroom can help any teacher plan what they are going to teach and is a great resource for teachers to point to if a student missed a concept or is having more trouble understanding a topic than the rest of the students. Then the AAPT website would be a great place to find out how to get students interested in physics and get them to know what is going on in physics today. I think using these resources as a combination would be great for any teacher to do in a physics classroom.
So first I think that I need to tell you that I teach physics which is a great subject that lends itself well to simulations. This was the first one that I explored. There is the website PHET. Which stands for physics education technology. I already kind of knew about this website but I have not taken the time to really explore all that it has to offer until this week. Let me tell you it was an eye opening experience. It has all kinds of resources that I didn't know about. I mean there are the simulations themselves which are great and help students visualize things that are too hard or to expensive for a teacher to do in a standard class but there are also teacher collaborations on how to best use them in the class. They have under each and every simulation even whole lesson plans on how to best use the simulations. I think this is a great resource for not only help students visualize but also help teachers know how to best use the resource. Here is the link to the website if you would like to explore it yourself. https://phet.colorado.edu/
The next one that I explored was https://www.physicsclassroom.com/. I did know about this one before this research but it quickly came up in a google search of physics classroom resources. This a great resource for teachers. They not only have several simulations like they do one PHET but they also have mini readings like they would in a textbook. They are called tutorials on the website. Then after the readings they have mini quizzes that can help students understand wither or not the actually understand the topic from the readings. They also have what they call concept builders which are programs the run in your browser that are essentially little quizzes that help students to learn any physics concept that they would encounter in a high school physics class. They also have printable worksheets that teachers can use to review their students on a given topic. Overall this website is set up almost so that if you wanted to you could teach yourself pretty much every thing that you would cover in a high school physics class. It is an amazing resource that I can't believe that I didn't know it existed before now. If any of you are physics teachers you defiantly should take some time to check this website out.
The last one that I explored this week, because the other two had me at their websites for hours looking at all the resources that were there, was the AAPT website. If you don't know the AAPT is the american association of physics teachers. This website naturally would have a bunch of resources for physics teachers. Which it does. I think this website is really good for the modern physics information like what is happening in physics now and how we can get our students exited about it and how we can explain it to them. One of the first resources that I looked at was this https://www.aapt.org/Resources/Teaching-the-Science-Behind-the-2018-Nobel-Prize.cfm how to teach the physics behind the nobel prize from this year. I think this is great and something that we really need as physics teacher to do is to teach what is happening in physics today. I think quite often especially in high school physics teachers are really just teaching the physics from about 400 years ago and we really never have time to get to the modern, in my opinion more interesting, physics that is happening right now. This was the main and best part about this website.
Overall each of these website/resources can easily have a place in the classroom. I think that the PHET website would be a great place fore teachers to go to get experiments that can't really be done in a classroom but they students could still have a "hand on experience" that would greatly help their understanding of the material. I think the physics classroom can help any teacher plan what they are going to teach and is a great resource for teachers to point to if a student missed a concept or is having more trouble understanding a topic than the rest of the students. Then the AAPT website would be a great place to find out how to get students interested in physics and get them to know what is going on in physics today. I think using these resources as a combination would be great for any teacher to do in a physics classroom.
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