Web Watch

Carl Mungan

I’ll start this issue’s column with a focus on web pages devoted to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education:

• Britain’s STEM Network at http://stemnet.org.uk/
  
  
• PBS’s STEM resources at http://www.pbs.org/teachers/stem/
  
  
• Gifted Children’s STEM page at http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=1484
  
  
• STEM for students with disabilities at http://www.washington.edu/doit/Stem/
  
  
• DOE’s Office of Vocational & Adult Ed STEM page at http://www.stemtransitions.org/
  
  
• Tennessee Dept of Ed STEM resources at http://www.stemresources.com/
  
  
• NASA’s page on STEM careers at http://stemcareer.com/
  
  
• National Institute for Science Ed’s homepage at http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/
  
  
• Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education’s STEM Learn and Earn site at http://www.completionmatters.org/summary/STEMLearnandEarn
  
  
• The NSF funded center for case study teaching in science has a searchable online collection at http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/.
  
  
• My students rave about how easy it is to quickly do math stuff at http://www.wolframalpha.com/.
  
  
• A large collection of useful physics simulations and explanations organized by topic can be perused at http://www.collegeonline.org/library/articles/physics-professor-resources.html.
  
  
• A compendium of physics lecture demonstrations can be found at Harvard University’s site starting at http://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/.
  
  
• A variety of science videos are online at http://www.veritasium.com/ although a few are a bit fluffy. Another bunch of physics videos are at http://www.physics.org/article-interact.asp?id=59.
  
  
• Haverford College has posted a good bunch of electronics, optics, and quantum laboratory writeups at http://www.haverford.edu/physics/Amador/AdvancedLabTeachingResources.php.
  
  
• Some of your students are probably interested in medical physics. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine has a page of links at http://www.aapm.org/links/medphys/.
  
  
• NASA’s Messenger spacecraft is currently orbiting the planet Mercury. View images and learn about its mission at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.php.
  
  
• AIP is attempting to increase science news content in syndicated media. You can visit its news service at http://www.insidescience.org/.
  
  
• Alice is a package used to teach computer programming with 3D graphics at http://www.alice.org/.
  
  
• I’m starting to hear the term “Problem-Based Learning” more and more often. One resource devoted to the idea can be accessed at http://www.makinglearningreal.org/.
  
  
• The textbook “Physics of Light and Optics” is online at http://optics.byu.edu/textbook.aspx.

Carl Mungan is a physics professor at the United States Naval Academy

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Disclaimer - The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.