Resources : Teaching Resources
Haverford Resources
Teaching Related Websites
- Rutgers ISLE resources for labs, demos (includes nice videos that make it possible to assign these for homework)
- Applets for teaching relativity, waves and quantum at NYU
- Physics Applets for teaching Waves and Optics (written by Andrew Cantino, HC Physics '05 working with Walter Smith)
- Everyday Physics (a compilation of questions and answers on real-world problems)
- University of Minnesota Physics Education Research Group : Context Rich Problems & sample materials for Mechanics.
- Uses of Personal Response Systems in the Classroom ("Clickers"): some resources: Clickers in the Classroom ; a description of their use in Harvard Intro Physics
- Concept Cartoons --a British project similar to Eriz Mazur's Conceptests, but with cartoons and more open-ended answers. These are designed to stimulate student discussion rather than probe for multiple choice answers.
- MIT's TEAL websites with excellent MPG videos showing simulations for Electricity &Magnetism .
- Eric Mazur's physics education website has links to his teaching projects, including the latest Conceptests and other resources of Project Galileo
- University of Wisconsin's MRSEC has a variety of useful materials including the NanoWorld Cineplex (lots of cool nanoscience movies), Exploring the NanoWorld (teaching materials, including Lego ideas), and the Lab Manual for Nanoscale Science and Technology. They also have a recipe for making PDMS for microstamping/microfluidics.and one on how to make CdSe quantum dots.
- PhysLets Homepage (if you purchase their textbook, you get the Java applets in CD-ROM form) http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Applets/Applets.html
- The Physics 2000 website has a variety of interesting applets
- Check out Greg Bothun's Virtual Laboratory website at University of Oregon for interesting applets
- Hybrid Orbitals (plotted using Mathematica, developed with thanks to Steve Wasserbaech and Rob Manning!): px, py, pz, sp, sp2, sp3, oscillating charge distribution composed of sp hybrid
- Visual Quantum Mechanics, Physics Education Research Group, Kansas State University http://phys.educ.ksu.edu/vqm/index.html
- Andy Rappe's website with the nice Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution simulation also has an option which allows you to compute the first N orbitals (and corresponding energies) of any atom on the periodic table using density functional theory.
- These offer a variety of useful websites for teaching special relativity and E&M. They've been used in the past for teaching 106, and the students especially like the radiation from moving charges Java applet.
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~phys1/java.html. - Read about how Vikings might have used the polarized properties of sunlight and birefringent crystals of cordierite to navigate on cloudy days at http://www.polarization.com/viking/viking.html
- Check out this remarkable website (sent to Walter by Lindsay Subers). It features a way for one person to move huge stone blocks without even the need for wheels or rollers. The method is not presented very clearly, but relies on having two pivot points underneath the block; by shifting a smaller counterweight on top, the weight can be changed from one pivot to the other, and then the block can be "walked" by turning it 180 degrees on the pivot.
- I recently received information about Robinett's ideas for a new edition of his quantum mechanics textbook. In it, he includes some cool websites with interesting quantum simulations, at:
http://www.phys.psu.edu/~rick/QM/qm.html
and a sample worksheet at: http://www.phys.psu.edu/~rick/QM/ws1_5.pdf. - Sam's Laser FAQ's has a section on Laser Experiments
- Chemistry Conceptests U. Wisconsin website
- and at Judith Herzfeld's website at Brandeis --books are also available on Conceptests in Chemistry and Calculus (Jeff Tecosky-Feldman is a coauthor on the latter)
- Physics of Sports at the Exploratorium ; Sports & Dance--presentations & weblinks ; Good Downhill Skiing site : Downhill Skiing with simulation ;
- Physics & Automobiles: Accident reconstruction ; Car accidents ; Videos & car recommendations ; SUV rollover accidents
- Forensics: Blood spatter analysis
- Physics for Everyone (examples of real world problems)
- Everyday Physics ( examples of real world problems)
- Four film clips about physics & sports, dance, racing and sound
- Physics of Dance --good course syllabus, descriptions and resources
- Wayne Hu's homepage at University of Chicago. He does a great job at introducing the cosmic microwave background from very basic to very advanced levels.
Teaching Videos
We have provided a space in the Science Library to store physics videos. The videos are located to the left of the circulation desk on the shelf above the copier and will circulate to Haverford faculty only, for a period of 7 days. These videos can be viewed in Tripod by doing a course reserve search and entering "Physics Laboratory Videos" as the course name.