Types of Materials

In order to support various teaching pedagogies, the Physlet-based curricular material comes in three formats:

• Illustrations animate what would normally be a static figure or a formula. They often illustrate a concept by allowing students to vary a physical parameter. 

• Exercises are open-ended tutorials exploring a particular concept. Students are asked several questions and must determine what to do and what to measure.  

• Problems are interactive versions of traditional questions that appear at the end of a chapter in most textbooks. They are focused and can require either a numeric or a conceptual answer.  

Why?  For In-class Demonstrations (Illustrations), Just-in-Time Teaching Exercises, Pre- and Post labs, Peer Instruction, and/or Tutorials.

We have a growing database of approximately 100 ready-to-run Physlet-based curricular materials for the teaching of quantum mechanics (from intro to advanced quantum).