PhET: Interactive Simulations for Teaching and Learning Physics

Abstract

T he Physics Education Technology (PhET) project creates useful simulations for teaching and learning physics and makes them freely available from the PhET website (http://phet. colorado.edu). The simulations (sims) are animated, interactive, and game-like environments in which students learn through exploration. In these sims, we emphasize the connections between real-life phenomena and the underlying science, and seek to make the visual and conceptual models of expert physicists accessible to students. We use a research-based approach in our design-incorporating findings from prior research and our own testing to create sims that support student engagement with and understanding of physics concepts. We currently have about 50 sims posted on our website. Many of the sims cover introductory high school and college physics, while others introduce more advanced topics, e.g., lasers, semiconductors, greenhouse effect, radioactivity, nuclear weapons, and Fourier analysis. Users, however, have included students from grade school through graduate school. On the website, the sims are organized under nine loose

Using Technology to Facilitate Modeling-Based Science Education: Lessons Learned from a Meta-analysis of Empirical Research

“…As a result, there is a growing research body in K-12 science education that investigates the technology-supported modeling tools and their applications in various science subjects. Examples of such MBI tools include Modelit, Molecular Workbench, NetLogo (introduced earlier), PhET, and Wise (Goldstone & Wilensky, 2008;Linn et al, 2006;Perkins et al, 2006;Xie & Tinker, 2006). PhET Interactive Simulations is an open-source Website developed at the University of Colorado that contains a variety of high quality computer models and simulations in STEM disciplines to help students visualize and test scientific models and processes (Perkins et al 2006;Wieman, Adams, & Perkins, 2008).…”

“…Examples of such MBI tools include Modelit, Molecular Workbench, NetLogo (introduced earlier), PhET, and Wise (Goldstone & Wilensky, 2008;Linn et al, 2006;Perkins et al, 2006;Xie & Tinker, 2006). PhET Interactive Simulations is an open-source Website developed at the University of Colorado that contains a variety of high quality computer models and simulations in STEM disciplines to help students visualize and test scientific models and processes (Perkins et al 2006;Wieman, Adams, & Perkins, 2008). WISE from the University of California, Berkeley is a Web-based inquiry environment that supports embedded assessments, student notes, peer collaboration and interactive computer models (Linn, 2006;Linn, Clark, & Slotta, 2003).While most of such studies include a brief description of the technology tools, the analysis and discussion of their key features and unique contributions to the modeling process are often absent.…”

Aplicação de elemento de game design sociointerativo em simulações de código aberto do projeto PhET

“…Perkins et al (2006), pesquisadores do grupo PhET, apresentam e discutem o método elaborado para a produção das simulações, que prioriza o engajamento e a melhoria da aprendizagem dos estudantes.…”

Efeito Doppler com tablet e smartphone

“…e experimentos virtuais [6][7][8][9], softwares [10][11][12] e vídeo-análise [13,14]. O uso de smartphones e tablets como instrumentos de medidas associadosà experimentação também tem sido investigados [15][16][17][18].…”