TPT WebSights column draft for September, 2007:
WebSights features announcements and reviews of select 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 physics website that you feel is outstanding and
appropriate for WebSights,
please email me the URL and describe how you use it to teach or learn
physics. The best site monthly
will receive a T-shirt. <macisadl@buffalostate.edu>.
The Internet Physicist, as reviewed
by Pat Viele, Cornell University Physics and Astronomy Librarian <ptv1@cornell.edu> at <http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/acl/tutorial?sid=1053487&op=preview&manifestid=207&itemid=>.
A new, streamlined and
user-friendly version of the Internet Physicist is ready for use. The Internet Physicist is a free online
tutorial (or Intute – internet tutorial, created by a UK education and
research consortium) and collection to help one learn how to use the Internet
for physics. Subject
specialists select and evaluate the websites in the database and write high
quality descriptions of the resources. The database contains 117,357
records. This service is akin to
the US National Science Digital Library (NSDL) ComPADRE effort at <http://www.compadre.org>.
The Internet Physicist tutorial is divided into four
sections: Tour the best of the web
for physics, Discover how to search the Internet effectively, Judge which
websites are worth using, and Success stories to inspire you. There is a brief quiz at the end of
each section to reinforce the learning process. You can collect links to sites as you go, but you must
either email the list of links to yourself for future action, or bookmark to
your own computer before logging off.
The links basket empties automatically when one logs off the tutorial.
I especially liked the section that compared and
contrasted a general search engine (google) with a Specialist search tool (intute: science, engineering and
technology). The section on evaluating a web site is very helpful. The tutorial
also stresses that not all information is available online, and academic libraries remain an
essential resource for physicists. The tutorial includes lilnks to the
on-line catalogs of major libraries. Listservs and blogs for those interested
in physics are also shown.
The Internet Physicist is an excellent starting place for
anyone interested in finding good sources of information about physics.
Online distance education
graduate courses in physics especially for high school physics teachers, by Dan MacIsaac.
I frequently get queries from
teachers interested in online physics graduate credit courses for high school
physics teachers, usually from teachers enrolled in masters' programs, or
looking to add physics certification to their licensure, or simply for
professional development. To be frank, I am not an optimist regarding teaching
significant physics content by online methods as I am a hands-on,
discourse-centric instructor, but these courses do impress. The following are suggestions for
online credit that a full time working teacher can take while holding a full
time job:
I strongly recommend the
online PY601/2 Matter and Interactions for Secondary Science Teachers sequence taught by Sherwood and Chabay of North
Carolina State University, see <http://distance.ncsu.edu/courses/fall07/PY.html>. This introductory calculus based
sequence of two 3 credit courses are taught by well-known and admired PER
figures, from their acclaimed books on calculus based introductory
physics. Recently one of my own
students took one of these courses, and prepared a review of that experience at
<http://tinyurl.com/249en6>.
Also recommended,
particularly for those teaching middle school physics or physical science, are
the University of Virginia PHYS605/6: How Thing Work I/II courses described at <http://k12.phys.virginia.edu/online-courses.html>
A review of one of these
courses was published in the Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online 4(1) for Autumn 2006; see <http://www.phy.ilstu.edu/jpteo/>.
The NSTA / National
Teacher Enhancement Network (NTEN) at
<http://btc.montana.edu/courses/aspx/ntenindex.aspx>
frequently offers graduate credit for physics teachers, including some online
courses. Faculty active in Physics
and Astronomy Education Research from Montana State and the University of
Arizona frequently instruct these.
Here at Buffalo State, we
teach an online seminar course PHY500: Introduction to Physics Education
Research for Teachers every spring semester, see <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.Edu/programs/>. This course is not a physics content
course per se, though content is
discussed extensively.
Humorous Physics and Spoof
Scientific Journals: The Journal
of Irreproducible Results <http://www.jir.com/>,
The Null Hypothesis <http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/>
and the Annals of Improbable Research
<http://www.improb.com/>
have all been suggested for physics humor. All present amusing spoof articles, descriptions, jokes and
cartoons from physics and science.
The Wolfram Demonstrations
Project at <http://demonstrations.wolfram.com> is "...a web collection of freely available,
interactive demonstrations in math, science and many in physics." These compiled Mathematics ^6
demonstrations are somewhat akin to physlets. Running these demonstrations requires the download and
installation of a free Mathematica
player (registration is suggested but not required). I enjoyed playing with the astronomical simulations
particularly, although the modern physics, mechanics and optics simulations
also looked nice.
I am a fan of other Wolfram
sites, particularly the Integrator:
<http://www.integrator.com/>. The QuickMath website <http://www.quickmath.com>
is another student favorite site powered by Mathematica, though sometimes it seems overwhelmed with users.