phet webinar - july 11, 2012
DESCRIPTION
A presentation about PhET science and math simulations made as a part of this P2PU School of Ed course https://p2pu.org/en/groups/sims/TRANSCRIPT
Trish Loeblein and Karen Fasimpaurphet.colorado.edu
Workshop Sponsored by P2PU July 11, 2012
Using PhET Interactive Simulations Live Discussion 1
Please mute your microphone in upper left corner
Salts and SolubilityAre you early? Check out this sim
• Q&A: How does the homework help be a collaborative learner?
• Address participants comments from homework.
• Give more info about sim design and best practices for use
• Explore the simulations and activities• Next homework: Ideas for planning use in
your environment – Watch for “Tasks”
Goals
How does the homework help be a collaborative learner?1. Get to know each other2. Explore some PhET resources
Chat or Raise your hand
Q&A
Some answers to comments
Next slides include more details than in “Replies” from online course Feel free to chat or raise your hand
• Trish — teaching chem, physics, math since 1981
• 7 years of PhET use in High School
Whose Trish?
• See “Using PhET simulation activities in High School Chemistry: Examples”
Experience with PhET
How can PhET be free?
National Science Foundation
The Hewlett Foundation
The O’Donnell Foundation
The University of Colorado
Carl Wieman & Sarah Gilbert
Corporate sponsors, schools, and individuals like you!
Who is PhET?
What makes these sims effective educational tools?
Beer’s Law Lab
Designed for Inquiry
Inviting, intuitive interface, usable without instructions
Highly interactive: instant animated feedback as students explore
Accurate, dynamic visual representations; show the invisible
Allow actions that would be difficult or impossible in the real world
Game-like environment Interface design that implicitly scaffolds inquiry
PhET design principles?
Initial designInitial design
InterviewsInterviews
RedesignRedesign
Final designFinal design
ResearchResearch
ClassroomsClassrooms
PhET design process?
Learning goalsLearning goals
Is the sim intuitive?
Do students find the controls?
Redesign
Before After
Can you spot the changes?
PhET’s goals for students?
Engage Engage
Learn Learn
Have Fun! Have Fun!
Take Ownership Take Ownership
Make Connections Make Connections
See Science as Accessible See Science as Accessible
PhET’s goals for teachers?
Student Centered Student Centered
Multi-Level Goals Multi-Level Goals
Value Student Ideas Value Student Ideas
Engage with Students Engage with Students
Encourage and Guide Inquiry Encourage and Guide Inquiry
Build On Student Prior Knowledge Build On Student Prior Knowledge
Research behind sims?
Acid-Base Solutions
How can an activity affect student interaction with the sim?
Three different activitiesG
uida
nce
A3: HeavyIn the “Solutions” section of the control panel, select “Strong Acid.” Record the equation.
A2: MediumUse the “Introduction” tab to compare strong and weak acid solutions. Describe all the ways that the solutions are similar and different.
A1: LightExplore the sim. Make sure to investigate all of the factors that affect the pH of a solution.
Guidance affects interactionG
uida
nce
Sim
Inte
racti
on
clicks per minute
More guidance = less exploration
Dunked pH paper
Completed circuit
Dunked pH meter
Selectedbase
Showedsolvent
See “SEI Resources on Instruction”
Salts and Solubility
Activity design – your thoughts
Keep BigBlueButton open -Play with this sim for 4 minutes. Listen to be called back for discussion
Designing inquiry activities
Add 100 silver bromide pairs to the water. How many silver and bromide ions dissolve in the water? Repeat this for all salts.
Investigate different salts. What features do salts have in common, and how do salts differ from each other?
What will students be doing and learning?
Specific learning goals Students reason and make sense Connect to students’ knowledge & experiences Collaborative activities Minimal directions Students self-check understanding
Research based inquiry strategies
Next homework: Check out phet.colorado.edu for more PhET Advice for Inquiry
• Context and activity are very important!
How might you use PhET sims?
• Start with 5-10 minute open play– Establish student ownership of the sim
• Minimize or eliminate “sim-specific directions”
• Use open, investigative questions
Tips for productive inquiry
Set the acid concentration to 0.010 M …
Explore all the things that
affect pH.
• Get activities online– Over 500 activities– Open-use license: Creative Commons – Attribution– Gold stars align with PhET strategies
PhET activity database
• Write your own activities and share– Posting to the database is easy and helps other
teachers– Combine existing activities or write from scratch to
address your learning goals
Thanks for participating!
• Visit us on the web – http://phet.colorado.edu– Watch for new sims– Download handouts from today– Contribute a teaching activity
• Contact us – [email protected]– Suggest new sim topics– Report bugs
• Keep in touch
Explore the sims and tasks
See you next Wednesday for another live discussion