Web Watch

Carl Mungan

Three more webpages devoted to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education to add to the lists in my previous two columns:

• Pathways to Science.
  
  
• Georgetown's STEM page.
  
  
• Connecting Humanities to STEM.
  
  
• Puzzles are fun in physics. But mathematicians like to get in on the fun too. A lengthy list of mathematical articles related to physics puzzles is online at the following verbose link:
  http://cadalyst.digibooks.cn/Tutorials/Poser-Tutorials/Most-recreations-in-probability-are-connected-with-some-paradoxicalfeature- A-good-exposition-of-most-these-appears-following_1/.
  
  
• If you haven't seen the "Scale of the Universe" animation created by two teenagers, check it out on ABC News website.
  
  
• The Institute of Physics has a new webpage with content tailored for teachers online.
  
  
• I have not yet tried using it, but there is a free tool to convert PDF documents into HTML pages.
  
  
• My children found http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ to be helpful in finding ideas for Science Fair projects.
  
  
• Wolfram has hundreds of interactive physics demonstration animations on the web at http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/topic. html?topic=College+Physics.
  
  
• What young person could resist videos about the physics of race car driving.
  
  
• Three substantial American RadioWorks presentations in a series entitled "Don't Lecture Me" can be accessed at http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/lectures/.
  
  
• If you teach intermediate-level physics with substantial calculus content, you'll likely find something useful at http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/20/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=3852. Examples include a short derivation of the sum of the reciprocal integers squared, various kinds of average distances from the earth to the sun, and a bug problem.
  
  
• There's an interesting website from a German PER group devoted to visualizing special and general relativity at http://www.spacetimetravel.org/.
  
  
• Westfall's biography of Newton has been strongly recommended to me. Put it on your summer reading list.
  

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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.