Overview

PhET Interactive Simulations ( https://phet.colorado.edu), a project of the University of Colorado Boulder, provides fun, free, interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations for use across, primary, secondary, and higher education levels. We extensively test and evaluate each simulation to ensure educational effectiveness. All simulations are open source and free to all students and teachers. In this course, you will learn strategies for how to use PhET in circumstances where you are presenting a simulation in front of the whole class using a projector, interactive whiteboard, or while sharing your screen online. This course is the second in the specialization “Active Learning in STEM with PhET Interactive Simulations,” which includes 4 courses in total. To finish this course, you need to complete two of three possible assignments with Peer Review: 1) Whole Class Inquiry, 2) Interactive Lecture Demonstrations, 3) Concept Questions. This course is also available in Spanish as “Clase Entera con PhET para la Educación STEM” and Portuguese as "A Turma Toda com Simulações PhET para Educação STEM".

Syllabus

Module 1: PhET in Whole Class Strategies

In this course, we will review strategies for how to use PhET in circumstances where you are presenting a simulation in front of the whole class using a projector, television, interactive whiteboard, or while sharing your screen online.

Module 2: Whole Class Inquiry

This module will introduce you to general strategies for getting students to respond to open-ended questions as a whole class: Whole Class Inquiry. These strategies can help you as a teacher to be more creative in the types of questions you ask, and can help to reveal students’ prior knowledge especially at the introduction of a new topic.

Module 3: Interactive Lecture Demonstrations

In this module, you will learn about how to ask pointed prediction questions, and help scaffold students’ responses through the use of a structured worksheet and discussions in pairs and as a whole class: Interactive Lecture Demonstrations. This strategy is especially effective for focusing students’ thinking on specific concepts and helping them to think about their own thinking.

Module 4: Concept Questions

This module will introduce you to how to effectively write multiple choice questions to promote critical thinking: Concept Questions. These questions may include open-ended predictions, contrasting cases, ordering and ranking cases, and interpreting representations, among others. However, in all cases, these questions are written in such a way that they allow students to vote and engage in peer instruction.

Module 5: Planning to Use Whole Class Strategies

In this module, you will design two activities for a whole class setup using two of the three strategies reviewed in this course: Whole Class Inquiry, Interactive Lecture Demonstrations, and Concept Questions.

Module 6: Conclusion and Next Steps

In this final module, we will ask you to reflect on your achievements and identify room for improvement, provide feedback on this course, and share information about how to download your certificate once you have completed all requirements