I teach Physics and AP Physics B and have found some great resources over the years to use in class and to share with students as support materials. Here's a list of some of them.



1. The Physics Classroom - this site is excellent. It has a tutorial section (online lessons with links, practice problems and simulations) along with a review section, help for solving word problems, links, multimedia resources and much more. The lessons are in easy to understand terms and each subject area is broken down into small parts. One of the best physics resources available.



2. PhET - Online or downloadable simulations and virtual labs. There are also teacher created lesson plans and resources for each lab/simulation. The quality of these resources is excellent and they really help students visualize and learn physics concepts. There are also simulations/virtual labs for Chemistry, Biology, Math and Earth Science.



3. Physics Study Guide wikibook - great content and explanations and has links to other resources. Can be used as a study guide or even as a basic textbook.


4. Motion Mountain - free downloadable Physics textbook - covers kinematics, light, electromanetism, relativity, and some other topics.


5. FHSST Physics online wikibook - Free High School Science Texts - covers all the physics concepts and has explanations and examples. Can easily be used as an e-textbook.




6. AP Physics B video lectures - excellent videos about each topic in physics. Great for review or for students who want another explanation of a concept. Geared towards AP Physics B, but can be used for any physics class.



7. Learn AP Physics - has practice problems, links, explanations, and videos. Includes some of the videos from #6 above. Geared towards AP Physics, but can be used for other classes also.





8. Online Physics Study Guide - topic explanations, simulations, practice problems, and more.




Share your physics resources with us.

In the tradition of doing Top Most/Best/etc lists at the end of the year, I decided to do a list of the Top 10 Most Read posts of all time on my blog. One or two were a bit surprising.


1. Interactive Periodic Table of Elements - surprising! But an excellent site for anyone studying or teaching chemistry.

2. Science Lab Safety and Science Resources - great safety and lesson resources for science teachers

3. Sea Monsters - Nat Geo - ancient sea creatures - another surprising one, but a very interesting site.

4. Great Web 2.0 Resources for Students - some great resources for students to use, including TrackClass, Evernote, Google apps, and Dropbox.

5. Google is Now a Graphing Calculator

6. Inforgraphic on Better Searches on Google

7. Bloom's Taxonomy and Technology - great resources for teachers

Here are the most read articles from the past week:



1. Penolo - sketch and then share on Twitter

Android Central
NORAD

CollectSPACE has some very cool pictures of the Space Shuttle Atlantis available. These pictures are very interesting and can be used when doing a lesson on space, engineering, or science. Spaceflight is a great way to get students excited about STEM subjects.

Space Shuttle Atlantis flew the final shuttle mission for NASA. It will be displayed for the public at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The pictures of the inside are amazing!

Wiggio is a free site that allows you to work with groups online. You can create a group for your class, for your team of educators, or even your whole school. The site allows you to have shared calendars, send email, text and voice messages, create to-do lists and assign tasks, create polls, upload and share files, and host virtual meetings and conference calls.

This would be great for teachers and schools to use for class and group work and collaboration.

There is also an iPhone app.

Zeodia is a site that allows you to take pictures and add time, location and content together to create a video that can tell a story about the picture.

It's free and easy to use. You can add transitions and zoom effects to the photos and add sound.

This is another tool that students and teachers can use for storytelling and creating projects. It might be fun for students to use it to share what they did on vacation, things about their family, or to create a project on a topic for class.



Related:

PhotoPeach - easily create and share photo slideshows

Qwiki - search results as a multimedia presentation

projeqt - an artful way to create and tell stories

Teachbook is an online community for teachers. The site is free, but does require you to register an account with them.

The site includes an online planbook to create, organize, and share lesson plans, a lesson plan section, community and forums, videos, news and online course section.

It creates a secure way to communicate with other educators and you can also use it to communicate with your students and parents.

Teachbook could be a good addition to your resource list and make it a part of your Personal Learning Network. 

freeSFX is a site that allows you to download free sound effects and royalty free music. There is a good selection of sounds and the site is easily searchable by term or category.

The files are in MP3 format and many are covered by Creative Commons Attribution licenses (give credit to the creator).

These sounds effects and music files could be used by teachers or students in multimedia projects.

National Geographic has some great resources for education, including the Nat Geo Education site, Nat Geo Animal Facts site, Ancient Sea Monsters, and the Traveler's Guide to the Planets. They also have a great interactive site on Wind Power.

The Wind Power Interactive site goes through how a wind turbine works, how the energy is converted to electricity and more. It's a great site to use with Environmental classes, Physics classes, or pre-engineering classes.

It's one of many interactive sites Nat Geo has.

Fill Any PDF Form is a very useful site. If you are like me, you hate when someone sends you an electronic form that has to be printed out to be filled out or signed. Fill Any PDF Form fixes this situation.

Will Fill Any PDF you can fill out, sign, and send forms all from the site. You can use any PDF form (or MS Word) even if it wasn't set up to be filled out online. You can invite others to fill out forms and track the results so you don't need to send the forms out.

The free plan is actually very full featured and easy to use.



Related:

I Love PDF - merge or split PDF files

Lots of PDF resources - print, markup, convert and more

Genome.gov is the National Institutes of Health site on the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The Education page on it has a huge amount of resources for educators, including fact sheets, genetics careers, all about the Genome project, webinars, lesson resources, links, and an online education kit about the project.

This is an excellent resource for Biology and Genetics teachers to get other resources, lesson ideas and more. This is an important topic that has scientific and ethical implemcations

I'm a big fan of Google+. I have a lot of educators and technology people in my circles and I'm trying to get more of my friends to join. I also have some former students who use Google+ and I'm setting up circles for my classes.

A recent announcement that Facebook will start putting ads directly in the news stream, and the fact that Facebook is full of apps, games, and nonsense, and security and privacy issues, all contribute to my continually decreasing use of Facebook. It's also blocked at school.

I've written about Google+ before and ways to use it in school and I've found some more good resources about Google+ to help people get started using it. It has more features and options than Twitter, but less junk than Facebook. The pages feature is also a great tool for educators and schools and hangouts makes video chat easy. You can easily share you blog posts and tweets to Google+ too.

You can find me on Google+ here.

Here are some resources to get you started:
Educators – Google Plus Is For You by Chris Brogan

Cacoo is a free site that allows you to create diagrams and drawings, such as network charts, mind maps, site maps and more online.

It has stencils and free hand options and even allows multiple users to work simultaneously on the same diagram.

This could be used by teachers and students groups to work on diagrams together.

Be The Future is a STEM resource from the Science Channel, part of Discovery Communications, that provides information, resources, links, lesson resources, and more from a variety of sources, including Discovery Education.

It is a new science initiative to help get students interested and engaged in science subjects and careers. There are classroom resources, quizzes, educational games and links to a variety of STEM resources from Discovery Education.

Google Good to Know is another great resource from Google. Good to Know has information and tips for internet safety, how your data is collected and used online, how Google uses data, and how to manage your data and what you share with web sites and Google.

This is a great resource for everyone and educators can use this to help students be more safe online and more knowledgeable about online data.

Printliminator is a bookmarklet (bookmark that performs a function) for Chrome, Safari and Firefox that allows you to only print the part of a web page that you want to. You click on the bookmarklet and then select what you want to print, eliminating graphics and even reformatting the print styling.

You simply drag and drop the bookmarklet to your bookmarks tool bar and you are all set. The site even has a video to help you use it.

This is another great tool to save paper when you have to print something.

Related:

Print Friendly - if you must print it, use this. creates printer friendly pages of sites

Tools to go Paperless (in school and at home) - lots of resources

Evernote - some great ideas for using it in education - use Evernote and you don't need paper

Lots of PDF resources - print, markup, convert and more - create PDF files instead of paper files.

Evernote Clearly - one click for distraction free online reading - very cool - then print this version of web page

Android 4 Schools is a new site from Richard Byrne, author of Free Technology for Teachers. In this site, Richard and his guest authors will be sharing resources and reviews of apps (mostly free) that can be used in K-12 schools, along with ways that those apps can be used in the educational setting by teachers, students, and administrators.

The site is off to a great start with quite a few apps reviewed already. The site will also have information about Android tablets for K-12, books about Android, and tutorials.

If you use Android as an educator, administrator, or student, or your school is looking at using them, you should check out this site.


Related:

Android SmartPhone and Apps that I use as an Educator

Android resources - information, news, resources, and more

Discovery Education is an excellent resource for educators. They have great fee-based products (Streaming, Assessment, Science and more) and over 30 free resources available for educators. The Discovery Educator Network is also a great resource for educators where they can connect with other educators and share resources and information. They also provide excellent, free, professional development through out the year. These sessions are held online and there are in-person events to coincide with the online program. 


The 3rd Annual DEN SCIcon will be held on Saturday, January 28th. The DEN SCIcon provides participants with effective strategies for transforming science classes through effective integration of digital media content. 


The agenda is listed below and you can register for the online sessions here: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/scicon2012


I will post a list of in-person events once they are announced. 


This is a great opportunity to gain some great ideas and resources for free. I've participated for the last two years and it was well worth the time. 

I've been watching some old science fiction movies and TV shows on Netflix lately, including the original Battlestar Galactica (1978) and was noticing some of the technology they used as fiction is now reality and it's pretty amazing. Back then, we never thought some of this would be real.

Communicator - hand held communication devices - cell phones

In Space:1999 they have a communicator that has video chat and unlocks the doors. Smartphones can do that now.

Battlestar Galactica had a hand held translator that translated spoken words - Google Translate on my Droid smart phone can do that.

GPS guidance - tons of those now.

Electronic note pads being used in multiple shows - tablet computers.

Sensors and scanners for medical diagnosis - CT and MRI now. There are even handheld ultrasound units now.

Voice activated and controlled computers - hello Siri and Jeannie (Android).

It's fun to look at these old shows and movies and see what "far-fetched" gadgets have become reality and talk about it with my students.

Penolo is a cool site that lets you create a sketch or annotate an image, and then share the sketch via Twitter. The images that you want to sketch over can be uploaded or you can enter the image URL. Images can be JPEG, GIF or PNG and can be no larger than 500kb.

This could be a good way for educators or students to share an idea, help, and more via Twitter. I can see using it to use a sketch instead of words to explain or describe something.

The Virtual Eye Dissection and Eye Anatomy is exactly what it says. The site allows you to review the anatomy of the eye, view photos from an actual eye dissection, and then perform a virtual dissection of the eye.

This is a great resource for anatomy and biology classes, and it's fun.

FYI: It is built in Flash.

SAILOn - Subject Area Interactive Lessons On-line - is a collection of interactive internet resources for teachers. The resources are sorted by subject and grade level and correlated with specific objectives. 

Discovery Education's DEN Summer Institute, DENSI2012, will take place July 21-26, 2012 at Montana State University.


The DENSI is a week long opportunity for up to 125 DE STAR Educators to connect with fellow STAR Discovery Educators during this exclusive and intensive professional development event.


For more information and to apply, go here:
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2011/12/19/den-summer-institute-2012/


Remember, you must be a DEN STAR to apply. For more information on the DEN and STAR, go here:
http://community.discoveryeducation.com/

MIT is one of many schools that offers free online courses. They are launching MITx, an e-learning program that will offer certificates to students who have mastered the course material. It will not be an MIT certificate, but rather one from a new organization. There will be a modest sum to receive the certificate.

This is just another way schools are reaching out and trying to get more students to take their online courses. Usually, there is no certificate or acknowledgement that you took the course.

Read more here: http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/mit_to_offer_certificates.html

There is a big push for increasing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in all classes and grade levels. As a science teacher and engineer, I agree that STEM topics are important to our students and our society.

The Dayton Ohio Regional STEM Center is a great resource for teachers who teach STEM subjects or who want to integrate these topics into their classrooms.

The site has STEM Curriculum, project ideas, lesson plans, teacher aids, resources, and links. The resources are high quality and you can search them easily.

This is another great resource for STEM subject lessons and resources.

The Cell: An Image Library is a free collection of images, animations, and videos of cells. The site is easy to search and contains materials from different organisms, showing cell structure, function, and processes.

The collection is a great resource for any teacher or student that is teaching or studying the cell.

The quality of the resources is excellent and this is a resource that Biology teachers are really going to want to check out. Many of the images are microscopic photographs with very high detail and the images are annotated.

You can sign up for a free account if you want to upload images or customize materials.

The entire collection is searchable and you can also browse by subject.

Life, the magazine that has built a reputation on amazing photography, has their 2011 Pictures of the Year posted.

There are 107 pictures with topics ranging from the Tsunami, to Hurricane Irene to Iraq to the Royal Wedding and many other topics. In typical Life fashion, the photos are incredible and stimulate the senses and your brain.

This is a great resource to use with classes to discuss some of the biggest stories of 2011 with your classes. The topics can be used in different subjects and photography classes could definitely use these as examples.

Kloosion is a soon-to-be-launched beta service that promises "a secure and private way to share and communicate". There isn't much more than that available yet, but you can sign up to be notified when the beta is available at their site.

The site is supposedly going to allow you to work, study, and communicate with others with a simple, secure tool.

It sounds like it might be a mini-social network or the like with more security and privacy than most of the current ones.

As soon as it launches, I'll try it out and share more information.

Paint.net is a free, downloadable, image and photo editing software for Windows. It is easy to use, has a ton of features like layers, special effects and more, and a great community for help and ideas.

It is easy to use, but powerful enough for most people's needs. It is a great tool for editing images and a great, free replacement for Photoshop, Paint Shop, and others. It's also easier to use than some of the other free editing software like GIMP.

A group of education, business and community leaders is working to make recommendations on readying K-12 students for career paths, higher education. The Integrating College and Career Readiness Task Force in Massachusetts will be working to develop recommendations to better integrate college and career readiness into K-12 education.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) President Dennis Berkey has been appointed to this task force. WPI is my alma mater (Mechanical Engineering Aerospace, 1992) and I've been a huge proponent of WPI's educational Plan as a great way to teach any subject, in any grade level.

The task force will be looking at ways to engage students, provide early access to career education and multiple pathways to success in their post secondary education.

What I like about this group is that it is combining educators, business persons, and community leaders to work together.

Read more here: http://www.wpi.edu/news/20112/dec11pres.html

Top Read Posts for the Past Week


1. Get Discovery Education Flash Content on your iPad

Cybrary Man's Educational Web Sites - Cybraryman has a great site with over 20,000 links to educational resources. The site is organized by Educators, Parents, Students and sub categories. He even has lists of educational hashtags for Twitter. It is an excellent site with tons of resources.



The site has information for parents about parenting, child development, school safety, internet safety and more. 
There is a student section with resources for homework help, project and research assistance, study skills and test prep and much more. 


The educator section has links and resources for lesson plans, subject areas, technology, and more and includes resources on Twitter and Facebook in education.


The site is an incredible resource for all.

Google Translate is a great tool for education. I use it to translate papers, notes, and web pages for students and parents. I also use it to translate things into English for myself and my students use it to help them.


The Google Translate app for Android, which already has some cool features like speech to text translate, and back again, including a speech-to-speech conversation mode, now has a handwriting recognition feature that works with 7 languages. The languages include Chinese, Japanese, English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

This is another great tool for ELL and Language arts classes, as well as anyone needing some translations done.

The iOS app is not yet update with this feature.