TPT WebSights column draft for January, 2009:

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. macisadl@buffalostate.edu.

APS publishes energy efficiency study: Energy = Future: Think Efficiency

www.aps.org/energyefficiencyreport This new American Physical Society report discusses improving energy efficiency in US transportation and buildings, recommending reducing or eliminating fossil fuels dependency, improved vehicular mileage standards, zero emission buildings (ZEB) and increasing federal government energy research funding.

Philip Schewe, from Physics News Update, a weekly electronic newsletter from the American Institute of Physics http://www.aip.org/pnu/

Using videos from http://YouTube.com and other online sources with blocked internet access

A number of teachers have been using online videos in their classroom, despite the fact that many school networks are locked so as to exclude sites like YouTube etc.

- Matt Coia of Williamsville North HS Physics recommends the use of the http://www.vixy.net website for converting YouTube and other FlashVideo / FLV files to MPEG4, avi etc format. Conversions are handled at the vixy website so a teacher can then download a video to a disk or USB flash memory chip for transportation to a school computer.

- Brett Thompson of Comsewogue HS Physics suggests that this can also be done at the teacher's home computer using a free download for Macintosh computer from http://www.chimoosoft.com/products/tubetv or another online site http://www.keepvid.com.

- Howard Spergel of Cornell Physics suggests that there are download helpers for the popular FireFox browser www.downloadhelper.net that can be used to view and save YouTube and other FLV videos whicah can be layed through various free FLV players.

Some sample instructor assembled sites featuring videos to try:

- Brendan Noon of the Edison Institute of Technology uses an extensive collection of videos and web resources across two websites to teach science and physics. Science with Mr Noon at http://www.sciencewithmrnoon.com/ includes online interactive links and videos for every day of a NY Regents Physics course, a Physics First course and a physical science course. Noon also hosts a YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/noonscience which includes both Noon's classroom teaching activities and presentations by professional physicists to lay audiences on modern, theoretical and particle physics.

- Tony Mangiacapre of St. Mary's HS Physics has a nice collection of physics videos at http://www.stmary.ws/physics/home/videos/.

- Robert Dalling of the Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts has a collection of materials at http://faculty.lsmsa.edu/RDalling/physlink.htm previously featured in WebSights.

Paper Roller Coasters website

http://www.paperrollercoasters.com/ Shows a sample video and distributes a very nifty set of inexpensive materials reviewed by Diane Reindeau in the December 2007 edition of The Physics Teacher.