WebSights features reviews of select sites presenting physics
teaching strategies and resources, as well as shorter announcements of sites of
interest to physics teachers. All sites are copyright by their authors. This
column is available as a web page at <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.Edu/pubs/WebSights/>.
If you have successfully used a
site to teach physics that you feel is outstanding and appropriate for WebSights, please email me the URL and describe how you use it
to teach. The best site monthly will receive a T-shirt. <macisadl@buffalostate.edu>
I've
been assembling links for a course in Electronics, hence these links dedicated
to teaching and learning about introductory circuits and electronics:
<http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~phylabs/>
The
University of California at Berkeley Physics department has their Physics
111 Basic Semiconductor Circuits Laboratory manual online, containing a number of student
activities mainly in linear electronics, with limited digital and LabVIEW
work. That course is currently
taught by Jim Siegrist, and Tom Colton brought this site to my attention.
<http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/>
The National
High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University has a collection of
electronics resources in their Molecular Expressions Electricity and
Magnetism Tutorial
pages including tutorials with JAVA applets suitable for learning
about capacitors, CRTs, Drude model (atomic level) resistance, electric
generators, Lentz' Law, reading resistor
color codes, Ohm's Law, Radio, RC circuits, and transformers and
electromagnetism. This site
includes a particularly nice animated illustration of the lithographic,
deposition, ion implantation, doping, sputtering and etching processes involved
in manufacturing a Field Effect Transistor (FET) at <http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/transistor/>. Also at this site is an interesting
collection from a subculture of artwork called the Silicon Zoo – a
collection of atomic level artwork created by chip designers, some found in the
borders and crannies of production chips.
Other microscopy artwork of arcane crystals are quite amusing as well.
<http://www.tek.com/Measurement/fundamentals/scopes/>
The XYZ's
of Oscilloscopes by
Textronix contains a 64p primer on using
modern (both analog and digital) oscilloscopes, probe compensation and so
forth.
<http://www.hobby-elec.org/e_menu.htm>
Seichi Inoue's Hobby
of Electronic Circuit Engineering
pages show a particularly nice collection of
photographs and explanation of electronic components, amongst many other
introductory electronics resources.
Although the English is a little fractured in places, the images are
first rate.
<http://www.pbs.org/transistor/>
The PBS Special Transistorized has an associated site that presents the
science and impact of the transistor, co-developed with the American Physical
Society (APS).
The Physics Education
Technology project at the University of Colorado Physics Department <http://phet.colorado.edu/>
has many nice simulations, including several on Electricity, Magnets and
Circuits. Particularly note a nice
pair of circuit construction JAVA applets with some teacher written lesson
activities for series and parallel circuits.
Inexpensive
science gadgets from Harbor Freight Tools:
<http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=thermometer>
Bob Sciamanda of Edinboro
University of PA Physics reports that the
Harbor Freight Tools
chain is selling $10, $27 and $40 models of a very nifty non-contact IR
thermometer. I'm still playing
with my $27 model, which uses a laser pointer to indicate the measurement
point. Harbor Freight tools is
also famous for other low cost gadgets for teaching physics, including digital
multimeters under $10 and a $13 digital scale both manufactured by
Cen-Tech. They also sell a
high-voltage "Electronic Fly Swatter" for under $5, though we have
yet to learn of a legitimate, peaceful use for this alarming device.
An
Online Database of Physics Teacher Opportunities:
A new online database
collection of physics teacher opportunities such as Research Experiences for
Teachers (RETs), online courses, summer courses and workshops, events relevant
to physics teaching, teacher scholarships and fellowships and so forth is being
assembled at <http://ptec.org/>. This comPADRE website is sponsored by
the APS and the AAPT through the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PTEC),
amongst many other partners. Your
contributions are solicited and welcome.