» Return to: Noyce Physics Teacher Advisory Group Overview
Online Physics Demos/Lessons/Resources
- American Physical Society – See section on Online Teaching Tools
- MIT BLOSSOMS – Math and Science Video Lessons for High School Classes
- National Science Foundation – Physics Classroom Resources
- NJAAPT – Physics Teaching Resources
- PhET Interactive Simulations
- The Physics Classroom
- My Physics Lab – Physics Simulations
- Arizona State University Modeling Instruction – “Best high school physics student resources to reinforce and supplement instruction (especially Modeling Instruction), websites recommended by teachers of first-year physics students, including AP and Dual Enrollment.” (Updated in October 2018; compiled by Jane Jackson)
- The Concord Consortium – STEM Resource Finder – Interactive STEM activities, free for your classroom
- AAPT – Physics Education K12 Lessons and Resources
- PhysPort: the place to go to learn about research-based teaching methods that have evolved out of physics education research, as well as to get curricular supports, access diagnostic and concept tests, and get training through video workshops.
- Free resources from the PhysPort articles that are listed below under: Teaching Online – Physics-Specific Ideas/Information
- Digi Kits: Digi Kits are vetted collections that include a hands-on, inquiry-driven activity inspired by articles from The Physics Teacher journal, digital resources that support student and teacher learning, and are aligned closely to the Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS performance expectations.
- The Physics Front: Physical and Physical Science Teaching Resources (includes Editor selections by Topic and Unit including: Physics First, Conceptual Physics, Algebra-based, AP-Calculus and K-8 Phys. Sciences) Registration is free. “The Physics Front is replete with the best of the best, vetted resources from around the web. Sign in to the system to create your own collections of lesson plans, websites, and multimedia for K-12 physics.
- PhysPort: the place to go to learn about research-based teaching methods that have evolved out of physics education research, as well as to get curricular supports, access diagnostic and concept tests, and get training through video workshops.
- eduMedia – Interactive simulations (and videos and quizzes) across physics and astronomy topics for secondary and introductory college level.
- Science Snacks – From the Exploratorium in San Francisco – hands-on, teacher-tested, and use cheap, available materials.
- *Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics – Free digital resources, designed to help teachers explain a range of important physics and science topics. Each compilation includes a set of lesson plans, hands-on activities and demos, modifiable worksheets, background information for teachers, and original PI videos.
- *New Visions for Public Schools – Physics Curriculum Materials – About New Visions: We design, create and sustain great schools for New York City’s highest need students. Since 1989, New Visions for Public Schools has served as a laboratory of innovation within the city’s public schools, driving significant achievement gains for tens of thousands of students. We we freely share best practices and lessons learned, to enable others in New York City and across the nation to raise student achievement in schools at scale.
- *Physics! Blog! – Physics resources from Kelly O’Shea, a high school physics teacher from a progressive, independent day school in NYC.
- Check out the section on “whiteboarding”: Whiteboarding Mistake Game: A Guide – (a method of engaging students in discourse about conceptual problem-solving errors)
- See more on whiteboarding:
- *Physic Resources from Delores Gende
- Resources for Physics Remote Learning
- “Redesigning Assessments for Remote Learning,” Physics Teacher, September, 2020
- Teaching AP Physics
- *Physics Aviary – Free resources: cross-platform, run-anywhere, programs to help physics students around the world master the big ideas in physics.
- *Simbucket – Free simulations designed and shared by four physics teachers
- *Physics Teaching Resources – from Martha Lietz, high school physics teacher
- *Science Buddies – Free hands-on science resources for home and school (includes 45 high school physics projects)
- *Omni Calculator – offers a thousand-plus free calculators, including 218 specific to physics. “Our physicists’ team constantly create physics calculators, with equations and comprehensive explanations that cover topics from classical motion, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism to astrophysics and even quantum mechanics.”
Physics Teaching Twitter Accounts
You can sign up for a Twitter account and access it on your computer or download the Twitter app to your phone/tablet. Then find @njaapt or @iteachphysics and “follow”, reading the tweets that are posted, while adding your own.
- @njaapt – NJAAPT (New Jersey section of the American Association of Physics Teachers) has a Twitter account. This can be a useful tool for Physics teachers to POST questions, SHARE ideas, and even vent, if needed.
- @iteachphysics –Bi-weekly professional development Twitter chat for physics teachers moderated by @BlackPhysicists
Teaching Online – Physics-Specific Ideas/Information
from PhysPort.org (NOTE: Offers for a few of the “Free Resources” have expired.)
- I Suddenly Have to Move My Lab Course Online! What Should I Do? By Linda Strubbe and Sam McKagan, PhysPort (posted March 25, 2020 and revised October 6, 2020)
- I Suddenly Have to Move My Face-to-Face Physics/Astronomy Course Online! What Should I Do? By Linda Strubbe and Sam McKagan (posted March 13, 2020 and revised June 16, 2020)
Teaching Online – General Ideas/Information
- 10 Strategies for online learning during a coronavirus outbreak (International Society for Technology in Education)
- Moving Online Now – How to keep teaching during coronavirus (The Chronicle of High Education)
- Moving Your Classes Online? Here’s How to Make it Work – With high schools and colleges closing, the key is finding creative ways to keep students engaged. A physics prof shares his tips.
- Teaching online? Don’t panic. Blog by Icess Fernandez
*General Science Teaching Resources (Grades 7-12)
- Tools for Teaching Science – includes a list of websites and published resources for teachers striving to improve student learning that has been carefully curated by Perimeter Institute, the world’s largest research hub devoted to theoretical physics. The not-for-profit Institute is a unique public-private endeavor, including the Governments of Ontario and Canada, that enables cutting-edge research, trains the next generation of scientific pioneers, and shares the power of physics through award-winning educational outreach and public engagement. View the resources page.
Free Tools for Online Teaching (General)
- Zoom – CEO Offers Free Tools for Schools Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
- Kahoot!
- 42 Free Online Resources for Schools Shifting Online During Coronavirus
- THE Journal – Free Resources for Schools During COVID-19 Outbreak (Updated 9/14/2020) (NOTE: Offers for a few of the “Free Resources” have expired.)
Additional Tools
(NO LONGER FREE, but may still be of interest – had offered free resources in Spring, 2020 due to school closures)
- JoVE Science Education: A collection of simple, easy-to-understand video demonstrations in eight STEM fields – including Physics
- Positive Physics – An online physics problem and video bank designed for conceptual, standard, honors or AP1 physics.
- Vernier – remote learning resources including Vernier Video Analysis, which lets students use their mobile devices in video analysis work, Pivot Interactives which allows students to vary experimental parameters one at a time, and 80-plus experiments with sample data covering numerous subjects.
- Labster – provides virtual laboratory simulations for high schoolers. Over 100 lab experiments cover biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and general sciences.
NOTE: This webpage is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1557357 (TCNJ Noyce Grant, Preparing Highly Qualified Physics Teachers). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.