Resources by PhET Interactive Simulations University of Colorado Boulder

Acid Based Solutions

This simulation allows students to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of acid and base strength, given acids or bases at the same concentration, by:

1. Relating the strength of an acid or base to the extent to which it dissociates in water
2. Identifying all...

Area Builder

Area Builder gives students the opportunity to build any shape and explore the relationship between the area of a shape and the length of its perimeter. The “Game Screen” contains two kinds of challenges: Build a shape and Find the area. There are different levels of increasing difficulty. The teacher notes give...

Balancing Act

With this simulation students can move objects on a seesaw to learn about balance and test what they have learned by trying the Balance Challenge game.

Sample learning objectives include:

*Predict how objects of various masses can be used to make a plank balance.

*Predict how changing the...

Balancing Chemical Equations

With this simulation students can explore the conservation of mass and balance chemical equations. Sample learning objectives include: *Balance a chemical equation. *Recognize that the number of atoms of each element is conserved in a chemical reaction. Describe the difference between coefficients and subscripts in...

Beer's Law Lab

This simulation explores the Beer's Lambert Law. It allows you to make colourful concentrated and dilute solutions and explore how much light they absorb and transmit using a virtual spectrophotometer.

Curriculum links include:

• Beer's law
• Solutions
• Concentration
• Molarity...

Build an atom

This simulation allows you to build an atom out of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and see how the element, charge, and mass change. Students can then play a game to test their ideas.

Curriculum links include:

• Atoms
• Atomic Structure
• Isotope Symbols
• Atomic Nuclei...

Charges and fields

This simulation allows students to arrange positive and negative charges in space and view the resulting electric field and electrostatic potential. They can plot equipotential lines, discover their relationship to the electric field and create models of dipoles, capacitors, and more!

Sample Learning...

Circuit Construction Kit

This simulation allows students to build circuits with capacitors, inductors, resistors and AC or DC voltage sources, and investigate current and voltage.

Sample Learning Objectives include: *Build circuits from circuit diagrams. *Use an ammeter and voltmeter to take readings in circuits. *Discuss basic...

Collision Lab

This simulation allows students to use an air hockey table to investigate simple collisions in 1D and more complex collisions in 2D. Students can experiment with the number of discs, masses, initial conditions, and can vary the elasticity and see how the total momentum and kinetic energy changes during collisions...

Color Vision

In this simulation, students create a rainbow by mixing red, green, and blue light. They change the wavelength of a monochromatic beam or filter white light and can view the light as a solid beam, or see the individual photons.

Learning objectives could include:

*Determine what colour the person sees...