A Message for Teachers From The Physics Classroom

Learn more about how The Physics Classroom can support teachers' in-class and out-of-class needs.

What's New at The Physics Classroom?

Hey! It's a big website. And sometimes the new stuff stays hidden for a while. So let us help you out with this page announcing our most recent additions.
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THE PHYSICS CLASSROOM TUTORIAL

A set of instructional pages written in an easy-to-understand language and complemented by graphics and Check Your Understanding sections. An ideal starting location for those grasping for understanding or searching for answers.

PHYSICS SIMULATIONS

The Physics Interactives includes a large collection of HTML5 interactive physics simulations. Designed with tablets such as the iPad and with Chromebooks in mind, this user-friendly section is filled with skill-building exercises, physics simulations, and game-like challenges.

PHYSICS VIDEO TUTORIAL

Our Video Tutorial provides a video-based alternative to the written Tutorial above. We aim to present relatively short, highly-organized presentations with a strong graphical component on discrete topics. Watch them on our site or follow the links to YouTube. We add videos quite frequently so stop back by if you don't find what you are looking for. Or subscribe to our YouTube channel, tap the bell, and receive notifications when new videos come out.

MULTIMEDIA PHYSICS STUDIOS

A large collection of GIF animations and QuickTime movies designed to demonstrate physics principles in a visual manner. Each animation is accompanied by explanations and links to further information.

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CONCEPT BUILDERS

Have you tried a Concept Builder lately? You should. This growing collection of cognitively-rich exercises will focus student attention on discrete learning goals. Filled with interactive elements, this section is the perfect tool for getting students thinking about the meaning of concepts. Perfect for students and 1:1 classrooms using iPads, Chromebooks, and the like. And for Chemistry types, we've added a large collection of Chemistry Concept Builders. 

MINDS ON PHYSICS - VERSION 5  

Minds On Physics - Version 5 is the HTML5 version of Minds On Physics that replaces our App and Legacy versions. Relying on a large bank of carefully crafted questions, Minds On Physics seeks to improve students' conceptions of physics. "MOPs" combines interactive questioning modules with a thorough, question-specific Help system to engage students in an exercise in thinking, reflecting and learning. Version 5 is our best-yet version of Minds On Physics. There is a fully functional free version and a paid version that integrates seamlessly with our Task Tracker system and offers some rather enticing features.  

THE CALCULATOR PAD

Version 2 of the Calculator Pad is now available. Our newest version includes >2500 Physics and Chemistry problems organized into >250 ready-to-use problem sets. Numerical information is randomly-generated. An answer box allows students to solve and check their answers. Most problems are accompanied  by an audio-guided solution that explains how to solve a similar problem while hilighting the habits that can be adopted for solving any problem. Teachers with Task Tracker accounts can modify problems and problem sets and even create their own problems. Task Tracker also allows teachers to assign problems to their students and track their progress. 

CONCEPT CHECKERS  

Concept Checkers were built to coordinate with the Physics Interactives section of our website. Relying upon our Task Tracker tool to deliver questions, check answers, and track student progress, a Concept Checker is designed to coordinate with an interactive simulation. Use it as a follow-up check to understanding after exploring the simulation. Most sims are accompanied by a Concept Checker. Some sims have Task Tracker code built into the simulation. But not all sims will have a Concept Checker.  Concept Checkers can be used with or without a Task Tracker account. 

THE SCIENCE REASONING CENTER

The Science Reasoning Center is our most recent upgrade. This section includes about 70 activities that are perfect for encouraging scientific reasoning skills. Students use science and engineering practices, combined with cross cutting science concepts and core ideas from the disciplines of physics (and chemistry) to analyze phenomenon, experiments, and data presentations. We broke ground in April of 2023; we will continue work throughout the 2023-24 school year.

THE REVIEW SESSION

A collection of pages with questions and answers/explanations which serve as reviews or practice. Each review complements a chapter from The Physics Classroom Tutorial.

PHYSICS HELP

A variety of question-and-answer pages which target specific concepts and skills. Topics range from the graphical analysis of motion and drawing free body diagrams to a discussion of vectors and vector addition.

ACT TEST CENTER

Calling all high school juniors: You've trusted The Physics Classroom to help prepare you for that unit exam in physics. Why not trust us to help prepare you for the biggest test of the year - the ACT test? That's right. Let the TPC help you with the ACT.

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CURRICULUM CORNER

A collection of classroom ready worksheets for use by teachers with their classes. Pages are synchronized to readings from The Physics Classroom Tutorial and to assignments of The Minds On Physics Internet Modules. And now teachers can purchase The Solutions Guide containing complete answers, explanations and solutions to all worksheets. This is a section of great usefulness to teachers and of little interest to students. The Solutions Guide is available as a Digital Download.

TEACHER PRESENTATION PACK

Our Teacher Presentation Pack is a downloadable product that includes nearly 190 Microsoft PowerPoint slide decks, about 170 animations and videos in .mp4 and .gif formats, too-many-to-count stand-alone images, and a Lesson Notes page for every slide deck. The slide decks are compatible with Google Slides. We did our best to make the product ready-to-use and at the same time fully customizable. It's a great tool in the toolbox for any early-career teacher, cross-over teacher, or even veteran teacher.

QUESTION BANK

Writing good tests and quizzes for your physics class just got a whole lot easier! With The Physics Classroom's Question Bank, physics teachers can quickly put together multiple choice and free-response quizzes and tests that target concepts discussed at The Physics Classroom website. The Question Bank is available for purchase as a both a CD resource and as a Digital Download. Use of the Question Bank requires the Microsoft Word application. (Answers are NOT included on the Question Bank.)

NGSS CORNER

Our newest section, the NGSS Corner assists teachers of Physics and Physical Science in aligning their curricula with the Next Generation Science Standards. Numerous resources are identified and their alignment with the NGSS is described.

TEACHER TOOLKITS

The Teacher Toolkits provide teachers with packages of online resources (simulations, movies, animations, demonstration ideas, etc.) that are organized around a topic and a set of learning objectives. These resources, when combined with the numerous resources on our own site, allow teachers to plan high-quality, engaging instruction and to map out a curriculum that is NGSS-based.

THE LABORATORY

While you explore the approximately 150 labs here at The Laboratory, you will likely generate some questions about how they are used and how you can use them. This page, and the pages it links to, are hoped to provide some answers to those questions.

THE PHOTO GALLERY

The Photo Gallery provides teachers a toolbox of physics-relevant photos from the wealth of photos on Flickr. The Photo Gallery offers teachers three things: access to photos, organized by topic; a collection of nearly 30 galleries; and an invitation to join this exciting project of capturing and sharing physics phenomenon with a camera. Of course, students are welcome to participate as well.