Science Journal for Kids and Teens Free reports on cutting-edge, peer-reviewed science research adapted for students and their teachers. Articles can be selected according to reading level (elementary school, lower high school, middle school, upper high school) and/or subject field (biodiversity and conservation, biology, energy and climate, food and agriculture, health and medicine, physical science, pollution, social science, technology, water resources).
Free Interactive Science SimulationsBased on JavaScript, JavaLab simulates various natural phenomena that relate to physics, chemistry, Earth science, astronomy, biology, measurement, and mathematics. For example, the Spectrum Analysis Simulation analyzes the sound around students and displays it as a spectrum. Students listen to an orchestra and categorize the instruments used in real-time. In the Continental Drift Simulation, students move the continents to create a connected supercontinent. And in the Making Molecular Models (whiteboard) Simulation, students create molecular structures by dragging and dropping atoms. Atoms that are no longer needed can be returned to the periodic table.
Propello - A New Science Teaching and Learning Platform Propello is a new service that offers a free and customizable science learning platform. Propello provides teachers with core science curriculum that is recommended for students in grades six through eight. But because Propello allows teachers to modify materials, the curriculum could be used with younger or older students. When you sign-up for a free Propello account you'll have access to all of the materials on offer. The materials are organized into three sections. Those sections are Earth and Space Science, Life Science, and Physical Science. www.freetech4teachers.com
Engineering Tomorrow was founded to create free programs that awaken student curiosity and passion for engineering—all at no cost to teachers, students, or their schools. The nonprofit delivers virtual labs to high school classrooms that simulate real-world projects designed by expert engineers so students gain unique insight and understanding into the world of engineering. The virtual labs integrate seamlessly with the current curriculum while aligning with Next Generation Science Standards. All of the virtual labs are designed for independent and self-paced learning.
Interactive Sites for Electricity and Energy K-5
The Physics of Bicycling www.freetech4teachers.com
Interactive Sites for Forces of Motion K - 5
CK12 Physics simulations
Concord Consortium–chemistry, earth science, engineering, life science, physics
Crash Course: Physics (videos)
Monster Physics
Physics Catalyst\
Physics Classroom
Physics Forums
Physics instructional videos
Roller coaster simulator
Simple Physics
Mini Golf Motion Grades K-5 | Physical Science "Solve mini golf puzzles by building walls and bouncing mini golf balls into different directions to get a hole in one. Mini Golf Motion is an educational game where players must design solutions through their understanding of physics and collisions."GO TO GAME
Hyperdoc Science Lab Report Template
Centripetal Force www.freetech4teachers.com
ExploreLearning Gizmos A site containing an array of math and science simulations arranged by curriculum, topic, or textbook. These little applications explore hundreds of concepts that students learn in elementary, middle, and high school math and science.
Quantum Rascals interactive AR puzzle game, by University of Southern Denmark, teaches students about quantum physics in a playful and innovative way. In the game, which is free to download on iOS devices, students help Quantum Kate discover subatomic particles and become a true Quantum Rascal.
The Concord Consortium has hundreds of science activities and computer simulations best used with middle and high school students. Teachers can use the site to find tasks aligned to their standards, push assignments out to their students, and track student progress. By assigning a task to their class, teachers can view written responses that students provide throughout an activity. Activities are organized by discipline in the life, engineering, physical, and earth sciences.
MySciLife (gr 6 - 8) A free educational social media platform that leverages social media elements students already enjoy using to create media and active connections with curricular content and develop digital citizenship skills. Students design identities based on science concepts, conduct research to build their profiles, and learn from one another as they personify their identities in posts, comments, and responses. For example, they may choose to become their favorite planet and talk about their region of the Solar System. Or they may comment on posts as different organisms to show relationships in the food chain, or play two truths and a lie while personifying a tectonic plate.
Science Journal for Kids and Teens reports on cutting-edge, peer-reviewed science research adapted for students and their teachers. Articles can be selected according to reading level (elementary school, lower high school, middle school, upper high school) or subject field (biodiversity and conservation, biology, energy and climate, food and agriculture, health and medicine, physical science, pollution, social science, technology, water resources). Teachers will also find a collection of lesson ideas, including hands-on activities, case studies, and games with distance-learning options.
Open-Source Kit for Middle School Science
Nonprofit OpenSciEd was launched to create high-quality open-source science instructional materials specifically for middle schools. The lessons are available for science teachers to access and download freely. All align with NGSS and are developed by educators and tested by teachers. The organization recently released hands-on learning content for eighth-grade science. The latest unit covers “forces at a distance,” with 12 lessons for 30 days of classes. Among the inquiries are, “What causes a speaker to vibrate?” “What can a magnet pull or push without touching?” “How does energy transfer between things that aren’t touching?” Most activities require only ordinary materials (such as a screwdriver and scissors, cardboard and foil). Each unit includes a set of professional learning resources, with instructional agendas, slides, and videos. A remote learning guide is also available
Tool for Building Simulation Validating How Something Works
SageModeler is an intuitive modeling tool being developed at The Concord Consortium and the CREATE for STEM Institute at Michigan State University for middle school and high school students to build their own models and validate their model design using real-world data. Using the SageModeler tool, students can take their current ideas about how something works and design a runnable simulation without needing to write equations or do traditional coding. By making it possible to map their ideas about a phenomenon to a working computational simulation, students can test, share, evaluate, and revise their model (and their understanding of the phenomenon). SageModeler makes possible three different types of modeling, from basic diagramming of the structure of a system to creation of a static equilibriummodel or a dynamic time-based model. A step-by-step tutorial is available in English and Spanish.
Solving Problems With Simple Machines is a compilation of a few videos from a few years back. The segments of the video explain what simple machines are and give examples of using simple machines like levers, pulleys, axles, and wheels.
Simple Machine Challenges Building toys that use simple machine concepts. It has a Christmas theme but the challenges can be used at any time of the year.
Lab4Physics - A Lab in Your Pocket Lab4Physics is an educational solution designed to support teachers around the world improve science education, by making it easy and inexpensive to bring lab experiences into the classroom. In this lab, students can find tools (like an accelerometer, a sonometer or a speedometer) that can help them measure gravity or acceleration in real time.’
University of Colorado Boulder: Interactive Simulations for Science and Math
One of the richest single repositories of online science interactives and virtual labs. Investigate more than 150 physics, chemistry, math, biology, and Earth science topics. Available in dozens of languages, the interactives are searchable by grade level, subject, and accessibility. Accessibility options include alternative input, audio descriptions, and pan-and-zoom functionality. The University of Colorado Boulder team even found a way to incorporate Java sims so that you can easily run one in your browser window
Prepmagic Customize science simulations to highlight phenomena by adding pause points, notes, and quizzes to simulations, teachers can help build and assess student understanding. Not all simulations are customizable yet, but there are plans to add more in the future.
Hot Wheels Speedometry (request free classroom kit) encourages inquiry and real-world, problem-based learning through play, hands-on activities and in-depth lesson plans that support both Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. This education curriculum, co-created with researchers at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, combines Hot Wheels® fun, imagination, and action, as well as toys and track to accelerate learning. Speedometry™ is a free-to-use curriculum targeting fourth grade (8-9 year old) students. Comprised of two units with up to six lessons per unit, Speedometry™ provides coursework intended to cover a period of 10-12 days. Students work in collaborative learning groups to deepen their understanding of speed, angles, slopes, collisions, kinetic energy, and potential energy
BioInteractive provides access to a treasure trove of educational materials to use in science classes. You will find multimedia materials, videos, interactives, classroom activities, teacher guides, virtual labs and many other resources. In Holiday Lectures, for instance, you will get introduced to a series of lectures covering different scientific topics presented by leading scientists. The Short Films section features a number of ‘broadcast-quality films designed to engage students. Each one tells a different scientific story and is supported by supplemental resources including teacher guides and activities.’
Inq-ITS a science learning platform with simulations for Physical, Life, and Earth Science - all aligned with NGSS standards. Students show what they know and educators get real-time, actionable data to inform whole class instruction or one-on-one support. Rex, the virtual coach, gives students personalized assistance to help students conduct inquiry.’ Watch this video to learn more about Inq-ITS.
Rader's Physics 4 Kids is part of a series of Rader's 4 Kids lessons about science. Physics 4 Kids takes students on tours of different sub-topics of physics. After each stop on the tour there is a quiz that students can take to test their understanding of each topic. Along with text and image information there are some short videos about different physics concepts along the tour
Physics Girl Discover the immersive, perplexing, and hands-on side of physical science with Dianna Cowern, host of Physics Girl. In this series, Dianna shows us how the physical world works by using everyday experiences and questions to demonstrate basic (and sometimes, dangerously complex) scientific ideas. View Collection
OLogy has been recognized as a premier site for science learning by supporting children’s questions about the natural world. Now teachers can use OLogy to support reading comprehension in their classroom. Through a partnership with ReadWorks, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City has paired dozens of OLogy articles with vocabulary lessons and formative assessments. These units cover life, earth, and physical science content and are available for students in elementary through high school. Students can read articles such as “Creatures of the Reef” (third grade); “Wonderful World of Wasps” (fifth grade); “Paleontology: The Big Dig” (seventh grade); and “Unearthing Pterosaurs” (eleventh and twelfth grades). Teachers can explore these and other articles on the ReadWorks website.
Institute of Physics - Check out this amazing resource page that will provide many ideas on physics.
ExploreLearning Gizmos provides over 400 math and science online simulations that power inquiry and understanding. It has a free Gizmos account available for science and math educators with a curated collection of Gizmos that change every January/July. Each Gizmo comes with teacher guides and customizable lesson materials. Some of the major features of Gizmos include: interactive design which allows for extensive manipulation of variables and ‘what-if’ experimentation; visualizations and graphing tools help capture and compare results from experiments; in-depth activities create more moments to explore, discover and apply new concepts.
Algodoo – A free program, Algodoo gives teachers and students the opportunity to play with physics. One can use their own hands and simple drawing tools to design, construct and explore the world of physics. If it sounds like an interesting idea, than Algodoo is that program to take a look at. It is available for iPad, Windows, or Mac.
Electric Circuits from Hyperstaffs. On the Electric Circuits site your students can learn about the power sources used by common household products and then safely experiment with the creation of electric circuits. Electric Circuits presents students with a circuit to construct by using virtual power sources and switches.
Virtual AR Physics Lab for Curious MindsAnyone can enjoy the fun of scientific experiments with Physics Lab AR by Turtle Sim for iOS and Android devices. Teachers can demonstrate physics in class, and students can explore concepts inside and beyond the classroom. In augmented reality (AR) mode, users can experiment with various circuit components, build their own 3D electric circuits, and see how their circuits work in real time. They can choose from more than 20 circuit components (with more coming), drag them from the toolbox to their desktop, and connect them the way they like. They can set properties of circuit components to different figures and observe change of behavior and stats in real time, and with one click, they can turn what they built into an editable circuit diagram.
Science of Baseball. The Science of Baseball is a bit dated in its looks, but it still has some nice resources that can help students understand how a bit of science and mathematics is involved in the game. The Science of Baseball includes video and audio clips of baseball players and scientists explaining how the weather affects the flight of the ball, the physics of various pitches, and reaction times to thrown and batted baseballs.
How Things Fly features an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications. In some cases the feedback includes the airplane crashing and the students having to start over again. (www.freetech4teachers.com )
ESPN's Sport Science has a handful of little resources about the science of baseball. Currently featured on ESPN's homepage is a Anatomy of a Pitch. In Anatomy of a Pitch seven pitchers from the Arizona Diamondbacks explain how they throw their signature pitches. Each explanation includes slow motion footage and the pitchers explaining the release points, finger positionings, leg uses, and rotations involved in each their pitches.
Glean - Ever feel overwhelmed by all the educational videos online? Aided by a team of teachers, this service chooses and catalogs the best videos.
LabInApp Physics Demo Android is a 3D, interactive virtual laboratory tool that focuses on heuristic approach of understanding science. This heuristic ideology facilitates students and teachers to perform science experiments on computers or mobile devices, and eliminates the physical barriers of actual laboratory. LabInApp’s real-time 3D computer graphics technology promotes “learn by doing” pedagogy. This enhances the ability of teacher to deliver a live demonstration of experiments/concepts/phenomenon/complex ideas in a controlled environment.’
Thomas Edison's Secret Lab android Together with Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor of all time, the Secret Lab Kids will show you how fun science can be. In fact, it’s a BLAST! Unknown to the world, Thomas Edison had a secret lab where he invented a virtual version of himself and Von Bolt, a nearly-completed robot, to guide and inspire future generations of young scientists.
Interactive Book That Explores the Surprising Side of ColorWhen is yellow yellower than yellow? What color is a whisper? What’s missing from the palette of Renaissance painters? Students can explore the surprising side of color with Color Uncovered, an interactive book for iOS and Android featuring fascinating illusions, articles, and videos developed by the Exploratorium, a public learning laboratory exploring the world through science, art, and human perception. Students can try their own color experiments on their mobile device using simple items they have at home, such as a drop of water and a piece of paper. They’ll discover how mobile devices create color, what causes afterimages—and much more. Cost: Free
Technology Resources for Teaching Science This page from Edtech Teacher provides different resources for teachers of science from websites on biology and chemistry to those providing teaching materials on medicine and nano science.
Roller Coaster Physics www.freetech4teachers
Science Behind the Bike
See Also The Physics of Cycling The Physics of Running The Physics of Swimming.
Kineticcity is developed by the American Association for The Advancement of Science . Kineticcity provides some of the amazing collection of science experiments, games, activities, and challenges.
HHMI's BioInteractive is a good place for all science teachers to search for science lesson plans, videos, animations, and slideshows to use with students. You can search the BioInteractive library according to topic, keyword, or resource type.
Launchball is from the British Science Musuem. Students can create a sort of video game (and learn scientific concepts in the process), title it, and post the url.
Realtime Satellite Images and interactive lessons
The Satellite Observations in Science Education project (SOSE), provides free tools known as Reusable Content Objects, or RCOs. You can easily and quickly use RCOs to put an interactive web page together and get your lesson taught.
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/sose/
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/
Science Daily popular science news web sites. With over 65,000 research articles, 15,000 images, 2,500 encyclopedia entries, 1,500 book reviews, and hundreds of educational videos, there is something for everyone on ScienceDaily.
Interactive Simulations
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/index.php for all grade levels created by University of Colorado.
WISE
A simple yet powerful learning environment where students examine real world evidence and analyze current scientific controversies. Projects are designed to meet standards and complement your current science curriculum, and your grade 5-12 students will find them exciting and engaging. http://wise.berkeley.edu/
Science Education Gateway (SEGway)
http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/SegwayEd/index.html
NASA project which brings together the expertise of scientists, science museums and K-12 educators to produce science-based Earth and space science curricula for classroom use.
Rocket Science: Ride To The Station is a simulation created by NASA where players can put themselves in the role of running a mission to the International Space Station. The ‘Rocket Science: Ride 2 Station’ app is a free download, out now on iOS, and also available on the web.
Truss Me is an iPad app that students can use to design and test simple weight-bearing structures. Truss Me can be used in “challenge” mode or in “free play” mode. The challenge mode contains fifteen activities in which students are awarded points for strength and efficiency of their structures. For example, if a structure holds the weight but uses too many parts it doesn’t receive as many points as a structure using fewer parts while supporting the same weight. Structures that won’t work at all fall apart.
Simple Physics is an iPad app that presents users with fun and challenging engineering problems. The app has twelve challenges that progress in difficulty as you move through the app. The premise of each challenge is the same. The challenge is to create a structure like a bridge or staircase that can support a given amount of weight. You’re given a budget for materials for each structure and you have to stay under that budget. When your structure is complete, test it to find out if it will work.
Physics Central, begins with an inviting and engaging homepage that will have you clicking links that will open up some amazing resources and ideas.
Science of Everyday Life (K-12) On the site you will find videos and interactives that help kids learn about the science around them and make connections to what they are learning in school. Lessons are inquiry based and encourage exploration in life science, physical science, earth science and technology/innovation. Virtual labs are interactive flash-based labs where students can discover more about science like wind energy. At the Innovation HQ portion of the site, students can travel through time and look at innovations that they use in their every day life and “meet” 3M scientists. It is packed with videos, lesson ideas, virtual interactives and student activities. The lessons include great resources and encourage students to ask questions and dig deeper. Content is separated out by grade level, quickly find exactly what best fits your classroom needs!
The Physics Classroom is a great resource for high school Physics teachers and high school Physics students. The Physics Classroom was developed by Tom Henderson, a high school physics teacher since 1989. The Physics Classroom offers detailed tutorials on thirteen different physics topics including waves, electricity, Newton's laws, and vectors. In addition to the written tutorials, The Physics Classroom also offers more than 50 animations and 6 videos demonstrating physics concepts.
The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits is a neat series of interactive animations designed to help students of elementary and middle school age learn how electric circuits work. There are five sections to the series. Each sections builds upon the lessons of the previous section. The series starts with the basics of what makes a circuit complete and concludes with diagramming and building circuits. Each section in the series has a few short lessons and is followed by an animated interactive activity to which students can apply what they have just learned.
FreezeRay (4-12)
http://freezeray.com/index.html
This site offers a growing bank of imaginative, highly visual teaching-aids developed for use with interactive whiteboards in schools. The resources are designed to be used as rich sources of visually stimulating material, making use of both animations and drag and drop interactivity.
World of Teaching (K-12) This site contains a variety of PowerPoint teaching presentations in Biology, Chemistry, Math, English, History, Physics, Geography and Spanish.
The Great Energy Challenge is a National Geographic feature that offers some nice interactive posters for evaluating personal and global energy consumption. Global Electricity Outlook is an interactive display of electricity consumption across the globe. You can view the global picture or click on the map to view regional consumption. The display shows the means of electricity production globally and regionally. To see how shifting production sources would impact the world or a region use the sliders below the map. Read more about the Great Energy Challenge posters here.
Circuits.io is a free website on which you can design and test electrical circuits. You can design your circuits using the virtual version of components that you could purchase and place on a circuit board. As you design your circuits, Circuits.io will tell you if your circuits will work or not.
Electrocity is an online game that students can play to learn about electricity production and consumption. In the game students take on the role of mayor of a fictitious town. As the mayor the student has to manage the consumption and production of electricity for the town. At each turn the student is informed of whether or not you have successfully balanced consumption and production.
Squishy Circuits is a project developed at the University of St. Thomas for the purpose of creating tools that students can use to create circuits and explore electronics. Squishy Circuits uses Playdough-like to enable hands-on learning about conducting and insulating currents as well as creating circuits. The Squishy Circuits website provides directions for creating the dough and offers ideas for lessons using the dough. Watch this TED Talk for an explanation and demonstration of Squishy Circuits.
Hydro to Home is an interactive story of hydro-electric power from raindrops to homes. The story walks visitors through each step of the process of generating hydro-electric power and delivering to consumers' homes. The story is narrated and along the way there are interactive images that visitors can click on to learn even more information about hydro-electric power.
How Things Fly features an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications. In some cases the feedback includes the airplane crashing and the students having
Interactive Simulations
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/index.php for all grade levels created by University of Colorado.
Physics Interactive Simulations features a plethora of free online simulations to help students understand different physics concepts. This service is still in beta but there are already more than 60 simulations embedded there. Browse through the different collections and see what you can pick up for your students. Enjoy.
Algodoo is a 2-D physics sandbox that lets students build working systems of environments and objects that all have interacting physical characteristics; it's like a blend of toybox and laboratory sure to lead to fun and discovery. Changing the density of an object, its mass, or the material from which it's made can greatly impact how it works, and students get to see these changes in action -- effectively learning through experimentation. Attraction (magnetism), gravity, and light can also be tweaked, and students can create anything from simple scenes or machines that illustrate a principle or two to complex machines like simple computers, sorting machines, and vehicles. While advanced users can do extraordinary things like create playable games, even beginners can have a blast playing around with just a few objects and settings at a time to see how things like density or refraction work.
WISE
A simple yet powerful learning environment where students examine real world evidence and analyze current scientific controversies. Projects are designed to meet standards and complement your current science curriculum, and your grade 5-12 students will find them exciting and engaging. http://wise.berkeley.edu/
SEREF
the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation, has built a couple of tools that could be of interest to science teachers. SEREF has an energy estimation tool that allows you to estimate the potential solar and wind energy of any location. To use the estimation tool you have to enter your location using on the map and input the size of the solar panels or wind turbine structure. You can also draw out the dimensions of your solar panels on the map. The potential energy is then calculated based on climate, latitude, and typical weather patterns.
Free Interactive Science SimulationsBased on JavaScript, JavaLab simulates various natural phenomena that relate to physics, chemistry, Earth science, astronomy, biology, measurement, and mathematics. For example, the Spectrum Analysis Simulation analyzes the sound around students and displays it as a spectrum. Students listen to an orchestra and categorize the instruments used in real-time. In the Continental Drift Simulation, students move the continents to create a connected supercontinent. And in the Making Molecular Models (whiteboard) Simulation, students create molecular structures by dragging and dropping atoms. Atoms that are no longer needed can be returned to the periodic table.
Propello - A New Science Teaching and Learning Platform Propello is a new service that offers a free and customizable science learning platform. Propello provides teachers with core science curriculum that is recommended for students in grades six through eight. But because Propello allows teachers to modify materials, the curriculum could be used with younger or older students. When you sign-up for a free Propello account you'll have access to all of the materials on offer. The materials are organized into three sections. Those sections are Earth and Space Science, Life Science, and Physical Science. www.freetech4teachers.com
Engineering Tomorrow was founded to create free programs that awaken student curiosity and passion for engineering—all at no cost to teachers, students, or their schools. The nonprofit delivers virtual labs to high school classrooms that simulate real-world projects designed by expert engineers so students gain unique insight and understanding into the world of engineering. The virtual labs integrate seamlessly with the current curriculum while aligning with Next Generation Science Standards. All of the virtual labs are designed for independent and self-paced learning.
Interactive Sites for Electricity and Energy K-5
The Physics of Bicycling www.freetech4teachers.com
Interactive Sites for Forces of Motion K - 5
CK12 Physics simulations
Concord Consortium–chemistry, earth science, engineering, life science, physics
Crash Course: Physics (videos)
Monster Physics
Physics Catalyst\
Physics Classroom
Physics Forums
Physics instructional videos
Roller coaster simulator
Simple Physics
Mini Golf Motion Grades K-5 | Physical Science "Solve mini golf puzzles by building walls and bouncing mini golf balls into different directions to get a hole in one. Mini Golf Motion is an educational game where players must design solutions through their understanding of physics and collisions."GO TO GAME
Hyperdoc Science Lab Report Template
Centripetal Force www.freetech4teachers.com
- interactive simulations and lessons about centripetal force. Students can use these on their own or as part of a larger lesson that you lead.
- Planet Nutshell published a concise, animated explanation of centripetal force. You can watch it here or as embedded below.
- Here's a student-produced video addressing centripetal force in the context of "the tea cup problem." Jump to the two minute mark to see how he enlists the help of his brother to create the explanation.
- Finally, PhET offers lots of lessons and interactives to help students understand various forces in physics. Make sure you look at their list whenever you need help explaining a physics concept to students.
ExploreLearning Gizmos A site containing an array of math and science simulations arranged by curriculum, topic, or textbook. These little applications explore hundreds of concepts that students learn in elementary, middle, and high school math and science.
Quantum Rascals interactive AR puzzle game, by University of Southern Denmark, teaches students about quantum physics in a playful and innovative way. In the game, which is free to download on iOS devices, students help Quantum Kate discover subatomic particles and become a true Quantum Rascal.
The Concord Consortium has hundreds of science activities and computer simulations best used with middle and high school students. Teachers can use the site to find tasks aligned to their standards, push assignments out to their students, and track student progress. By assigning a task to their class, teachers can view written responses that students provide throughout an activity. Activities are organized by discipline in the life, engineering, physical, and earth sciences.
MySciLife (gr 6 - 8) A free educational social media platform that leverages social media elements students already enjoy using to create media and active connections with curricular content and develop digital citizenship skills. Students design identities based on science concepts, conduct research to build their profiles, and learn from one another as they personify their identities in posts, comments, and responses. For example, they may choose to become their favorite planet and talk about their region of the Solar System. Or they may comment on posts as different organisms to show relationships in the food chain, or play two truths and a lie while personifying a tectonic plate.
Science Journal for Kids and Teens reports on cutting-edge, peer-reviewed science research adapted for students and their teachers. Articles can be selected according to reading level (elementary school, lower high school, middle school, upper high school) or subject field (biodiversity and conservation, biology, energy and climate, food and agriculture, health and medicine, physical science, pollution, social science, technology, water resources). Teachers will also find a collection of lesson ideas, including hands-on activities, case studies, and games with distance-learning options.
Open-Source Kit for Middle School Science
Nonprofit OpenSciEd was launched to create high-quality open-source science instructional materials specifically for middle schools. The lessons are available for science teachers to access and download freely. All align with NGSS and are developed by educators and tested by teachers. The organization recently released hands-on learning content for eighth-grade science. The latest unit covers “forces at a distance,” with 12 lessons for 30 days of classes. Among the inquiries are, “What causes a speaker to vibrate?” “What can a magnet pull or push without touching?” “How does energy transfer between things that aren’t touching?” Most activities require only ordinary materials (such as a screwdriver and scissors, cardboard and foil). Each unit includes a set of professional learning resources, with instructional agendas, slides, and videos. A remote learning guide is also available
Tool for Building Simulation Validating How Something Works
SageModeler is an intuitive modeling tool being developed at The Concord Consortium and the CREATE for STEM Institute at Michigan State University for middle school and high school students to build their own models and validate their model design using real-world data. Using the SageModeler tool, students can take their current ideas about how something works and design a runnable simulation without needing to write equations or do traditional coding. By making it possible to map their ideas about a phenomenon to a working computational simulation, students can test, share, evaluate, and revise their model (and their understanding of the phenomenon). SageModeler makes possible three different types of modeling, from basic diagramming of the structure of a system to creation of a static equilibriummodel or a dynamic time-based model. A step-by-step tutorial is available in English and Spanish.
Solving Problems With Simple Machines is a compilation of a few videos from a few years back. The segments of the video explain what simple machines are and give examples of using simple machines like levers, pulleys, axles, and wheels.
Simple Machine Challenges Building toys that use simple machine concepts. It has a Christmas theme but the challenges can be used at any time of the year.
Lab4Physics - A Lab in Your Pocket Lab4Physics is an educational solution designed to support teachers around the world improve science education, by making it easy and inexpensive to bring lab experiences into the classroom. In this lab, students can find tools (like an accelerometer, a sonometer or a speedometer) that can help them measure gravity or acceleration in real time.’
University of Colorado Boulder: Interactive Simulations for Science and Math
One of the richest single repositories of online science interactives and virtual labs. Investigate more than 150 physics, chemistry, math, biology, and Earth science topics. Available in dozens of languages, the interactives are searchable by grade level, subject, and accessibility. Accessibility options include alternative input, audio descriptions, and pan-and-zoom functionality. The University of Colorado Boulder team even found a way to incorporate Java sims so that you can easily run one in your browser window
Prepmagic Customize science simulations to highlight phenomena by adding pause points, notes, and quizzes to simulations, teachers can help build and assess student understanding. Not all simulations are customizable yet, but there are plans to add more in the future.
Hot Wheels Speedometry (request free classroom kit) encourages inquiry and real-world, problem-based learning through play, hands-on activities and in-depth lesson plans that support both Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. This education curriculum, co-created with researchers at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, combines Hot Wheels® fun, imagination, and action, as well as toys and track to accelerate learning. Speedometry™ is a free-to-use curriculum targeting fourth grade (8-9 year old) students. Comprised of two units with up to six lessons per unit, Speedometry™ provides coursework intended to cover a period of 10-12 days. Students work in collaborative learning groups to deepen their understanding of speed, angles, slopes, collisions, kinetic energy, and potential energy
BioInteractive provides access to a treasure trove of educational materials to use in science classes. You will find multimedia materials, videos, interactives, classroom activities, teacher guides, virtual labs and many other resources. In Holiday Lectures, for instance, you will get introduced to a series of lectures covering different scientific topics presented by leading scientists. The Short Films section features a number of ‘broadcast-quality films designed to engage students. Each one tells a different scientific story and is supported by supplemental resources including teacher guides and activities.’
Inq-ITS a science learning platform with simulations for Physical, Life, and Earth Science - all aligned with NGSS standards. Students show what they know and educators get real-time, actionable data to inform whole class instruction or one-on-one support. Rex, the virtual coach, gives students personalized assistance to help students conduct inquiry.’ Watch this video to learn more about Inq-ITS.
Rader's Physics 4 Kids is part of a series of Rader's 4 Kids lessons about science. Physics 4 Kids takes students on tours of different sub-topics of physics. After each stop on the tour there is a quiz that students can take to test their understanding of each topic. Along with text and image information there are some short videos about different physics concepts along the tour
Physics Girl Discover the immersive, perplexing, and hands-on side of physical science with Dianna Cowern, host of Physics Girl. In this series, Dianna shows us how the physical world works by using everyday experiences and questions to demonstrate basic (and sometimes, dangerously complex) scientific ideas. View Collection
OLogy has been recognized as a premier site for science learning by supporting children’s questions about the natural world. Now teachers can use OLogy to support reading comprehension in their classroom. Through a partnership with ReadWorks, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City has paired dozens of OLogy articles with vocabulary lessons and formative assessments. These units cover life, earth, and physical science content and are available for students in elementary through high school. Students can read articles such as “Creatures of the Reef” (third grade); “Wonderful World of Wasps” (fifth grade); “Paleontology: The Big Dig” (seventh grade); and “Unearthing Pterosaurs” (eleventh and twelfth grades). Teachers can explore these and other articles on the ReadWorks website.
Institute of Physics - Check out this amazing resource page that will provide many ideas on physics.
ExploreLearning Gizmos provides over 400 math and science online simulations that power inquiry and understanding. It has a free Gizmos account available for science and math educators with a curated collection of Gizmos that change every January/July. Each Gizmo comes with teacher guides and customizable lesson materials. Some of the major features of Gizmos include: interactive design which allows for extensive manipulation of variables and ‘what-if’ experimentation; visualizations and graphing tools help capture and compare results from experiments; in-depth activities create more moments to explore, discover and apply new concepts.
Algodoo – A free program, Algodoo gives teachers and students the opportunity to play with physics. One can use their own hands and simple drawing tools to design, construct and explore the world of physics. If it sounds like an interesting idea, than Algodoo is that program to take a look at. It is available for iPad, Windows, or Mac.
Electric Circuits from Hyperstaffs. On the Electric Circuits site your students can learn about the power sources used by common household products and then safely experiment with the creation of electric circuits. Electric Circuits presents students with a circuit to construct by using virtual power sources and switches.
Virtual AR Physics Lab for Curious MindsAnyone can enjoy the fun of scientific experiments with Physics Lab AR by Turtle Sim for iOS and Android devices. Teachers can demonstrate physics in class, and students can explore concepts inside and beyond the classroom. In augmented reality (AR) mode, users can experiment with various circuit components, build their own 3D electric circuits, and see how their circuits work in real time. They can choose from more than 20 circuit components (with more coming), drag them from the toolbox to their desktop, and connect them the way they like. They can set properties of circuit components to different figures and observe change of behavior and stats in real time, and with one click, they can turn what they built into an editable circuit diagram.
Science of Baseball. The Science of Baseball is a bit dated in its looks, but it still has some nice resources that can help students understand how a bit of science and mathematics is involved in the game. The Science of Baseball includes video and audio clips of baseball players and scientists explaining how the weather affects the flight of the ball, the physics of various pitches, and reaction times to thrown and batted baseballs.
How Things Fly features an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications. In some cases the feedback includes the airplane crashing and the students having to start over again. (www.freetech4teachers.com )
ESPN's Sport Science has a handful of little resources about the science of baseball. Currently featured on ESPN's homepage is a Anatomy of a Pitch. In Anatomy of a Pitch seven pitchers from the Arizona Diamondbacks explain how they throw their signature pitches. Each explanation includes slow motion footage and the pitchers explaining the release points, finger positionings, leg uses, and rotations involved in each their pitches.
Glean - Ever feel overwhelmed by all the educational videos online? Aided by a team of teachers, this service chooses and catalogs the best videos.
LabInApp Physics Demo Android is a 3D, interactive virtual laboratory tool that focuses on heuristic approach of understanding science. This heuristic ideology facilitates students and teachers to perform science experiments on computers or mobile devices, and eliminates the physical barriers of actual laboratory. LabInApp’s real-time 3D computer graphics technology promotes “learn by doing” pedagogy. This enhances the ability of teacher to deliver a live demonstration of experiments/concepts/phenomenon/complex ideas in a controlled environment.’
Thomas Edison's Secret Lab android Together with Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor of all time, the Secret Lab Kids will show you how fun science can be. In fact, it’s a BLAST! Unknown to the world, Thomas Edison had a secret lab where he invented a virtual version of himself and Von Bolt, a nearly-completed robot, to guide and inspire future generations of young scientists.
Interactive Book That Explores the Surprising Side of ColorWhen is yellow yellower than yellow? What color is a whisper? What’s missing from the palette of Renaissance painters? Students can explore the surprising side of color with Color Uncovered, an interactive book for iOS and Android featuring fascinating illusions, articles, and videos developed by the Exploratorium, a public learning laboratory exploring the world through science, art, and human perception. Students can try their own color experiments on their mobile device using simple items they have at home, such as a drop of water and a piece of paper. They’ll discover how mobile devices create color, what causes afterimages—and much more. Cost: Free
Technology Resources for Teaching Science This page from Edtech Teacher provides different resources for teachers of science from websites on biology and chemistry to those providing teaching materials on medicine and nano science.
Roller Coaster Physics www.freetech4teachers
- CK-12 has a lot of interactive simulations for physics and math concepts. One of those is this roller coaster simulator. The voiceover for the simulation is very robotic. The redeeming quality of CK-12's roller coaster simulation is that students can customize the size of the roller coaster to see how the changes they make impact the speed, the potential energy, the kinetic energy, and the heat generated by the roller coaster.
- PBS Learning Media offers a handful of resources for teaching and learning about the physics of roller coasters. Energy Transfer in a Roller Coaster is an interactive lesson designed for elementary and middle school students. Energy in a Roller Coaster is a simple interactive graphic that students can use to see how changes in a roller coaster design impact the speed of the roller coaster. Centripetal Force in Roller Coaster Loops is a short video that demonstrates why its not just the harness keeping your seat in a roller coaster.
- Teach Engineering offers a hands-on lesson plan for teaching about the physics of roller coasters. In the lesson students build and test model roller coasters to learn about the forces that affect the speed of roller coasters.
- How Roller Coasters Affect Your Body is a TED-Ed lesson that begins with the story of the first roller coaster in America and the injuries it caused to riders. The lesson then moves on to explain how the forces of a roller coaster can affect your body, how roller coaster designers
Science Behind the Bike
See Also The Physics of Cycling The Physics of Running The Physics of Swimming.
Kineticcity is developed by the American Association for The Advancement of Science . Kineticcity provides some of the amazing collection of science experiments, games, activities, and challenges.
HHMI's BioInteractive is a good place for all science teachers to search for science lesson plans, videos, animations, and slideshows to use with students. You can search the BioInteractive library according to topic, keyword, or resource type.
Launchball is from the British Science Musuem. Students can create a sort of video game (and learn scientific concepts in the process), title it, and post the url.
Realtime Satellite Images and interactive lessons
The Satellite Observations in Science Education project (SOSE), provides free tools known as Reusable Content Objects, or RCOs. You can easily and quickly use RCOs to put an interactive web page together and get your lesson taught.
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/sose/
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/
Science Daily popular science news web sites. With over 65,000 research articles, 15,000 images, 2,500 encyclopedia entries, 1,500 book reviews, and hundreds of educational videos, there is something for everyone on ScienceDaily.
Interactive Simulations
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/index.php for all grade levels created by University of Colorado.
WISE
A simple yet powerful learning environment where students examine real world evidence and analyze current scientific controversies. Projects are designed to meet standards and complement your current science curriculum, and your grade 5-12 students will find them exciting and engaging. http://wise.berkeley.edu/
Science Education Gateway (SEGway)
http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/SegwayEd/index.html
NASA project which brings together the expertise of scientists, science museums and K-12 educators to produce science-based Earth and space science curricula for classroom use.
Rocket Science: Ride To The Station is a simulation created by NASA where players can put themselves in the role of running a mission to the International Space Station. The ‘Rocket Science: Ride 2 Station’ app is a free download, out now on iOS, and also available on the web.
Truss Me is an iPad app that students can use to design and test simple weight-bearing structures. Truss Me can be used in “challenge” mode or in “free play” mode. The challenge mode contains fifteen activities in which students are awarded points for strength and efficiency of their structures. For example, if a structure holds the weight but uses too many parts it doesn’t receive as many points as a structure using fewer parts while supporting the same weight. Structures that won’t work at all fall apart.
Simple Physics is an iPad app that presents users with fun and challenging engineering problems. The app has twelve challenges that progress in difficulty as you move through the app. The premise of each challenge is the same. The challenge is to create a structure like a bridge or staircase that can support a given amount of weight. You’re given a budget for materials for each structure and you have to stay under that budget. When your structure is complete, test it to find out if it will work.
Physics Central, begins with an inviting and engaging homepage that will have you clicking links that will open up some amazing resources and ideas.
Science of Everyday Life (K-12) On the site you will find videos and interactives that help kids learn about the science around them and make connections to what they are learning in school. Lessons are inquiry based and encourage exploration in life science, physical science, earth science and technology/innovation. Virtual labs are interactive flash-based labs where students can discover more about science like wind energy. At the Innovation HQ portion of the site, students can travel through time and look at innovations that they use in their every day life and “meet” 3M scientists. It is packed with videos, lesson ideas, virtual interactives and student activities. The lessons include great resources and encourage students to ask questions and dig deeper. Content is separated out by grade level, quickly find exactly what best fits your classroom needs!
The Physics Classroom is a great resource for high school Physics teachers and high school Physics students. The Physics Classroom was developed by Tom Henderson, a high school physics teacher since 1989. The Physics Classroom offers detailed tutorials on thirteen different physics topics including waves, electricity, Newton's laws, and vectors. In addition to the written tutorials, The Physics Classroom also offers more than 50 animations and 6 videos demonstrating physics concepts.
The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits is a neat series of interactive animations designed to help students of elementary and middle school age learn how electric circuits work. There are five sections to the series. Each sections builds upon the lessons of the previous section. The series starts with the basics of what makes a circuit complete and concludes with diagramming and building circuits. Each section in the series has a few short lessons and is followed by an animated interactive activity to which students can apply what they have just learned.
FreezeRay (4-12)
http://freezeray.com/index.html
This site offers a growing bank of imaginative, highly visual teaching-aids developed for use with interactive whiteboards in schools. The resources are designed to be used as rich sources of visually stimulating material, making use of both animations and drag and drop interactivity.
World of Teaching (K-12) This site contains a variety of PowerPoint teaching presentations in Biology, Chemistry, Math, English, History, Physics, Geography and Spanish.
The Great Energy Challenge is a National Geographic feature that offers some nice interactive posters for evaluating personal and global energy consumption. Global Electricity Outlook is an interactive display of electricity consumption across the globe. You can view the global picture or click on the map to view regional consumption. The display shows the means of electricity production globally and regionally. To see how shifting production sources would impact the world or a region use the sliders below the map. Read more about the Great Energy Challenge posters here.
Circuits.io is a free website on which you can design and test electrical circuits. You can design your circuits using the virtual version of components that you could purchase and place on a circuit board. As you design your circuits, Circuits.io will tell you if your circuits will work or not.
Electrocity is an online game that students can play to learn about electricity production and consumption. In the game students take on the role of mayor of a fictitious town. As the mayor the student has to manage the consumption and production of electricity for the town. At each turn the student is informed of whether or not you have successfully balanced consumption and production.
Squishy Circuits is a project developed at the University of St. Thomas for the purpose of creating tools that students can use to create circuits and explore electronics. Squishy Circuits uses Playdough-like to enable hands-on learning about conducting and insulating currents as well as creating circuits. The Squishy Circuits website provides directions for creating the dough and offers ideas for lessons using the dough. Watch this TED Talk for an explanation and demonstration of Squishy Circuits.
Hydro to Home is an interactive story of hydro-electric power from raindrops to homes. The story walks visitors through each step of the process of generating hydro-electric power and delivering to consumers' homes. The story is narrated and along the way there are interactive images that visitors can click on to learn even more information about hydro-electric power.
How Things Fly features an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications. In some cases the feedback includes the airplane crashing and the students having
Interactive Simulations
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/index.php for all grade levels created by University of Colorado.
Physics Interactive Simulations features a plethora of free online simulations to help students understand different physics concepts. This service is still in beta but there are already more than 60 simulations embedded there. Browse through the different collections and see what you can pick up for your students. Enjoy.
Algodoo is a 2-D physics sandbox that lets students build working systems of environments and objects that all have interacting physical characteristics; it's like a blend of toybox and laboratory sure to lead to fun and discovery. Changing the density of an object, its mass, or the material from which it's made can greatly impact how it works, and students get to see these changes in action -- effectively learning through experimentation. Attraction (magnetism), gravity, and light can also be tweaked, and students can create anything from simple scenes or machines that illustrate a principle or two to complex machines like simple computers, sorting machines, and vehicles. While advanced users can do extraordinary things like create playable games, even beginners can have a blast playing around with just a few objects and settings at a time to see how things like density or refraction work.
WISE
A simple yet powerful learning environment where students examine real world evidence and analyze current scientific controversies. Projects are designed to meet standards and complement your current science curriculum, and your grade 5-12 students will find them exciting and engaging. http://wise.berkeley.edu/
SEREF
the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation, has built a couple of tools that could be of interest to science teachers. SEREF has an energy estimation tool that allows you to estimate the potential solar and wind energy of any location. To use the estimation tool you have to enter your location using on the map and input the size of the solar panels or wind turbine structure. You can also draw out the dimensions of your solar panels on the map. The potential energy is then calculated based on climate, latitude, and typical weather patterns.
Games and Simulations
CK-12 physics simulations start with an introductory animation that explains the concept being demonstrated. After watching the demonstration students can play with a set of variables to see the effects of changing those variables. For example, in the archery demonstration students can change how far a bow is drawn to see what affect that has on the speed of the arrow. After experimenting with variables students can click the "challenge me" button to view a set of questions that ask them to utilize the information they learned through the simulation.
Assess Physics Learning Through Gameplay Physics Playground teaches and assess two-dimensional physics simulations dealing with Newton’s Laws of Motion—concepts such as gravity, mass, momentum and energy. Embedded in the game are assessments for creativity, conscientiousness and physics understanding. The game has a simple objective: get the green ball to hit the red balloon. The ball and balloon are placed in various locations on the screen, sometimes with obstacles in between, and students have to draw “agents of motion,” such as levers, springboards, pendulums or ramps, to get the ball to hit the red balloon. To increase the level of difficulty and receive more points, students can solve the problems using fewer agents to accomplish a task. Other times, difficulty is added if a level looks completely different from the previous levels. The problems have no one “right” answer.
Click Here to Visit Website
Assess Physics Learning Through Gameplay Physics Playground teaches and assess two-dimensional physics simulations dealing with Newton’s Laws of Motion—concepts such as gravity, mass, momentum and energy. Embedded in the game are assessments for creativity, conscientiousness and physics understanding. The game has a simple objective: get the green ball to hit the red balloon. The ball and balloon are placed in various locations on the screen, sometimes with obstacles in between, and students have to draw “agents of motion,” such as levers, springboards, pendulums or ramps, to get the ball to hit the red balloon. To increase the level of difficulty and receive more points, students can solve the problems using fewer agents to accomplish a task. Other times, difficulty is added if a level looks completely different from the previous levels. The problems have no one “right” answer.
Click Here to Visit Website
Videos
Scishow This is one of the most popular science channels in YouTube. SciShow discusses science news and history and concepts.
Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. It is a charitable organization with a worldwide membership of more than 50,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application.
The Fuse School The Fuse School is a charity that makes free education in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths, EFL and ICT - for kids & teachers around the world.
Crash Course The popular YouTube Channel Crash Course has this wonderful playlist feature a number of videos on chemistry and physics. Crash Course launched a new series of videos about physics. The series now contains seven videos on friction, integrals, derivatives, Newton's Laws, and motion.
NASA's Rocket Science 101. Rocket Science 101 is a free app offered by NASA that helps students understand how rockets work. The app also helps students understand the differences between the four types of rockets most frequently used by NASA. Available as a free Android app and as a free iPad app.
NBC's Science of Football is a series of ten videos from NBC Learn explaining and demonstrating math and science concepts as they relate to football.
The list of topics covered in the Science of NFL Football includes Torque & Center of Mass, Pythagorean Theorem, Geometric Shapes, Projectile Motion & Parabolas, Vectors, Kinematics, Nutrition, and Newton's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Laws of Motion.
Brain Stuff which features video explanations of a wide range of scientific phenomena.
Reactions Everyday Science is a YouTube channel that provides illustrative tutorials and videos on different scientific events.
Planet Nutshell launched a new series of educational mathematics videos. Today, I learned that Planet Nutshell is now producing videos about topics in physics.
New York Times Science Page features a wide variety of short video covering an array of scientific phenomena. Videos are arranged int mean categories: Science Take and CreatureCast.
Science Friday is a must-bookmark for teachers and students of science. On Science Friday you will find interesting videos and articles about a wide array of topics in chemistry, biology, physics, space science, and much more.
Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. It is a charitable organization with a worldwide membership of more than 50,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application.
The Fuse School The Fuse School is a charity that makes free education in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths, EFL and ICT - for kids & teachers around the world.
Crash Course The popular YouTube Channel Crash Course has this wonderful playlist feature a number of videos on chemistry and physics. Crash Course launched a new series of videos about physics. The series now contains seven videos on friction, integrals, derivatives, Newton's Laws, and motion.
NASA's Rocket Science 101. Rocket Science 101 is a free app offered by NASA that helps students understand how rockets work. The app also helps students understand the differences between the four types of rockets most frequently used by NASA. Available as a free Android app and as a free iPad app.
NBC's Science of Football is a series of ten videos from NBC Learn explaining and demonstrating math and science concepts as they relate to football.
The list of topics covered in the Science of NFL Football includes Torque & Center of Mass, Pythagorean Theorem, Geometric Shapes, Projectile Motion & Parabolas, Vectors, Kinematics, Nutrition, and Newton's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Laws of Motion.
Brain Stuff which features video explanations of a wide range of scientific phenomena.
Reactions Everyday Science is a YouTube channel that provides illustrative tutorials and videos on different scientific events.
Planet Nutshell launched a new series of educational mathematics videos. Today, I learned that Planet Nutshell is now producing videos about topics in physics.
New York Times Science Page features a wide variety of short video covering an array of scientific phenomena. Videos are arranged int mean categories: Science Take and CreatureCast.
Science Friday is a must-bookmark for teachers and students of science. On Science Friday you will find interesting videos and articles about a wide array of topics in chemistry, biology, physics, space science, and much more.
Apps
High School Physics with iPad - Free iBook
Learn how other teachers have taught physics with iPad and how you can integrate a variety of iPad content into your own physics classrooms. You’ll find examples of physics lessons that can complement your instruction and help you understand how to use different types of content for iPad together. And you’ll explore curated physics collections to help you discover apps, books, and iTunes U materials for building your own physics lessons.
Physics in Hand Students can turn their smartphones into a robust piece of data collection equipment with the MyTech app designed for iOS and Android. Ideal for a physics lab environment, the app allows students to analyze the motion of the device using raw data from the phone’s internal sensors as the phone falls, spins, or collides with springs. Each recording can be exported onto a spreadsheet for more in-depth analysis.
Learn how other teachers have taught physics with iPad and how you can integrate a variety of iPad content into your own physics classrooms. You’ll find examples of physics lessons that can complement your instruction and help you understand how to use different types of content for iPad together. And you’ll explore curated physics collections to help you discover apps, books, and iTunes U materials for building your own physics lessons.
Physics in Hand Students can turn their smartphones into a robust piece of data collection equipment with the MyTech app designed for iOS and Android. Ideal for a physics lab environment, the app allows students to analyze the motion of the device using raw data from the phone’s internal sensors as the phone falls, spins, or collides with springs. Each recording can be exported onto a spreadsheet for more in-depth analysis.
Truss Me (1.99) is an iPad app that students can use to design and test simple weight-bearing structures. Truss Me can be used in “challenge” mode or in “free play” mode. The challenge mode contains fifteen activities in which students are awarded points for strength and efficiency of their structures. For example, if a structure holds the weight but uses too many parts it doesn’t receive as many points as a structure using fewer parts while supporting the same weight. Structures that won’t work at all fall apart.
ExploreLearning Gizmos is the world’s largest collection of math and science simulations for grades 3-12. Teachers can use Gizmos to supplement and enhance instruction with powerful interactive visualizations that allow students to manipulate key variables, generate and test hypotheses, and engage in extensive “what-if” experimentation to develop a deep understanding challenging concepts.
NASA's Rocket Science 101. Rocket Science 101 is a free app offered by NASA that helps students understand how rockets work. The app also helps students understand the differences between the four types of rockets most frequently used by NASA. Available as a free Android app and as a free iPad app.
Gravity App G allows you to quickly experiment the effects of the Universal Gravitation by adding bodies into a simulation, seeing how they react to each other in real time, all in a true multitouch environment. G offers a vast universe to add your bodies into, potentially allowing you to create stable planetary systems, binary star systems, and other multiple-body complex systems.’
BridgeBasher Design a bridge and then destroy it. Powered by a sophisticated physics engine, BridgeBasher realistically simulates your bridge reacting to destructive forces in real-time.’
Inventioneers is a physics engineering game iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. Using given tools and helpers, students design, test, and revise fun, crazy inventions that will meet challenges and help special characters achieve success. A “Create” mode allows students to create and share their inventions with others. A free version of the app includes only the first chapter with 14 inventions and 40 different objects to use in creating the inventions. The full version, at a cost of $2.99, includes eight chapters with a total of 112 inventions and 100-plus objects that students can use.
Algodoo gives you the opportunity to play with physics. Use your own hands and simple drawing tools to design, construct and explore the world of physics.
Simple Physics (1.99) is an iPad app that presents users with fun and challenging engineering problems. The app has twelve challenges that progress in difficulty as you move through the app. The premise of each challenge is the same. The challenge is to create a structure like a bridge or staircase that can support a given amount of weight. You’re given a budget for materials for each structure and you have to stay under that budget. When your structure is complete, test it to find out if it will work.
Newton' Laws 0.99 Study and understand Newton's Laws of Motion right on your favorite mobile device. Newton's Laws uses a gaming-grade physics engine to simulate all the effects right before your eyes. No more reading abstract text books - see, touch and experience physics at your fingertips.
Circuit Playground Circuit Playground simplifies electronics reference & calculation so you can have more fun hacking, making, & building your projects.’
Gravity App G allows you to quickly experiment the effects of the Universal Gravitation by adding bodies into a simulation, seeing how they react to each other in real time, all in a true multitouch environment. G offers a vast universe to add your bodies into, potentially allowing you to create stable planetary systems, binary star systems, and other multiple-body complex systems.’
BridgeBasher Design a bridge and then destroy it. Powered by a sophisticated physics engine, BridgeBasher realistically simulates your bridge reacting to destructive forces in real-time.’
SpeedClock A unique, advanced app designed to easily measure the speed of cars, boats, skaters, skiers, cyclists, animals, models, footballs, tennis serves, etc. The system is based on motion detection, enabling you to track a moving object using a hand-held device alone. SpeedClock includes three separate speed measurement tools and two distance estimation tools.’
Aero! is an app designed to teach basic concepts of aerodynamics.
With two fingers, you can directly control the angle of an albatross's wing, causing changes in lift forces and allowing the bird to ascend or descend. Once you've got the hang of basic elevation changes, you can switch to Flight Mode, where you independently control the albatross's wings using thumb-sliders along each side of the screen.
NASA HIAD game gr. 6 - 8 (available online and as mobile apps) see how velocity, trajectory, and friction affect spacecraft upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. students learn to control HIADs to land them safely back on Earth. In the game students have to navigate the HIAD while accounting for velocity of the HIAD, wind speeds, timing of inflation, and shape of the HIAD. Make a mistake and the HIAD could burn up on re-entry or crash when it misses the landing zone. The game has four progressively more difficult levels. The first level teaches students the basics concepts and skills needed to complete the game.
ExploreLearning Gizmos is the world’s largest collection of math and science simulations for grades 3-12. Teachers can use Gizmos to supplement and enhance instruction with powerful interactive visualizations that allow students to manipulate key variables, generate and test hypotheses, and engage in extensive “what-if” experimentation to develop a deep understanding challenging concepts.
NASA's Rocket Science 101. Rocket Science 101 is a free app offered by NASA that helps students understand how rockets work. The app also helps students understand the differences between the four types of rockets most frequently used by NASA. Available as a free Android app and as a free iPad app.
Gravity App G allows you to quickly experiment the effects of the Universal Gravitation by adding bodies into a simulation, seeing how they react to each other in real time, all in a true multitouch environment. G offers a vast universe to add your bodies into, potentially allowing you to create stable planetary systems, binary star systems, and other multiple-body complex systems.’
BridgeBasher Design a bridge and then destroy it. Powered by a sophisticated physics engine, BridgeBasher realistically simulates your bridge reacting to destructive forces in real-time.’
Inventioneers is a physics engineering game iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. Using given tools and helpers, students design, test, and revise fun, crazy inventions that will meet challenges and help special characters achieve success. A “Create” mode allows students to create and share their inventions with others. A free version of the app includes only the first chapter with 14 inventions and 40 different objects to use in creating the inventions. The full version, at a cost of $2.99, includes eight chapters with a total of 112 inventions and 100-plus objects that students can use.
Algodoo gives you the opportunity to play with physics. Use your own hands and simple drawing tools to design, construct and explore the world of physics.
Simple Physics (1.99) is an iPad app that presents users with fun and challenging engineering problems. The app has twelve challenges that progress in difficulty as you move through the app. The premise of each challenge is the same. The challenge is to create a structure like a bridge or staircase that can support a given amount of weight. You’re given a budget for materials for each structure and you have to stay under that budget. When your structure is complete, test it to find out if it will work.
Newton' Laws 0.99 Study and understand Newton's Laws of Motion right on your favorite mobile device. Newton's Laws uses a gaming-grade physics engine to simulate all the effects right before your eyes. No more reading abstract text books - see, touch and experience physics at your fingertips.
Circuit Playground Circuit Playground simplifies electronics reference & calculation so you can have more fun hacking, making, & building your projects.’
Gravity App G allows you to quickly experiment the effects of the Universal Gravitation by adding bodies into a simulation, seeing how they react to each other in real time, all in a true multitouch environment. G offers a vast universe to add your bodies into, potentially allowing you to create stable planetary systems, binary star systems, and other multiple-body complex systems.’
BridgeBasher Design a bridge and then destroy it. Powered by a sophisticated physics engine, BridgeBasher realistically simulates your bridge reacting to destructive forces in real-time.’
SpeedClock A unique, advanced app designed to easily measure the speed of cars, boats, skaters, skiers, cyclists, animals, models, footballs, tennis serves, etc. The system is based on motion detection, enabling you to track a moving object using a hand-held device alone. SpeedClock includes three separate speed measurement tools and two distance estimation tools.’
Aero! is an app designed to teach basic concepts of aerodynamics.
With two fingers, you can directly control the angle of an albatross's wing, causing changes in lift forces and allowing the bird to ascend or descend. Once you've got the hang of basic elevation changes, you can switch to Flight Mode, where you independently control the albatross's wings using thumb-sliders along each side of the screen.
NASA HIAD game gr. 6 - 8 (available online and as mobile apps) see how velocity, trajectory, and friction affect spacecraft upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. students learn to control HIADs to land them safely back on Earth. In the game students have to navigate the HIAD while accounting for velocity of the HIAD, wind speeds, timing of inflation, and shape of the HIAD. Make a mistake and the HIAD could burn up on re-entry or crash when it misses the landing zone. The game has four progressively more difficult levels. The first level teaches students the basics concepts and skills needed to complete the game.