Phet - A Science Nerds Digital Playground

What is it- PhET is a web site, created by the University of Colorado Boulder, filled with free interactive simulations for math and science. The simulations are displayed in a game- like fashion, are highly engaging, intuitive, and span all grade levels. The best part is that they are created based on educational research.
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Why use it-  Next Generation Science Standards ask that science lessons begin with experiencing a phenomenon and then investigate what is happening.  For some phenomenons, such as plate tectonics, this can be a little tricky. By using a simulator, students can not only watch the phenomenon occur, but they can also manipulate different variables to see what is making these unobtainable phenomenons occur.
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How I use it - I use PhET to suck my students into our next unit of study. They go crazy when they see the PhET simulator embedded into our Learning Management System. I always make sure to allow the students time to simply explore  and become familiar with the phenomenon and the simulation at hand. By doing so, students learn the workings of the simulator and begin to find patterns, as well as, make inferences as to what it is we will be learning. Allowing that free time is almost as important as the teaching I will do after, because without it, what student is going to be able to focus on teaching when they have an awesome simulator in front of them? Once they have played for a few minutes I then ask them to investigate something on the simulation. In the case of the Natural Selection simulator (shown above), students may investigate how the habitat effects the number of brown bunnies vs the number of white bunnies, or I may as that they look at how genes change through generations. Students then design and test their own experiments using the PhET simulation. 

Different ideas:

• Fun educational option for when students finish their work 
• A more engaging option for homework
• A way to generate ideas for research projects or genius hour projects

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