University of Pittsburgh Research Experience for Undergraduates in Physics

Science- and Math-education links

• The Exploratorium Teacher Institute
  Teacher resources from the celebrated Exploratorium Science Center in San Francisco. Includes descriptions of classroom activities ("snacks"). A wonderful resource.
  
  
• The Physics Education Resource Association
  To aid physics teachers with demonstrations and lab info. A wealth of physics lab demo projects, and online physics images.
  
  
• "Demos With Positive Impact"
  A collection of calculus-oriented demonstrations (mostly computer, but some physical), by Lila Roberts of Georgia Southern University.
  
  
• Links to Online Math Educational Materials
  From the formerly NSF-funded "Geometry Center".
  
  
• Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education.
  An organization bringing together government, industry, and academia to promote science education.
  
  
• GetTech.
  A corporate-partnered organization highlighting technology jobs.
  
  
• Illinois Science Teachers Association, including mailing list, with archives.
  
  
• Education Division of the APS.
  
  
• American Physical Society's "Physics Central".
  Information and online resources in physics at the pre-college level.
  
  
• Physical Sciences Resources Page
  From the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT).
  
  
• American Association of Physics Teachers, Updates of Old Bulletins.
  
  
• American Institute of Physics, education and student services.
  
  
• Physics Today
  From American Institute of Physics (AIP).
  
  
• The Industrial Physicist.
  From AIP.
  
  
• Interactive Physics Applets.
  From the University of Colorado.
  
  
• Chicago Math Teacher Link.
  Some online math teacher resources.
  
  
• The Association of Teachers of Mathematics
  A british organization.
  
  
• "The Physics Supermarket"
  A resource for physics teachers; contains online transparencies, study guides, experiements, and some links to other physics info.
  
  
• Database of online images.
  Maintained by North Central Region Educational Laboratory. A potentially useful resource for teachers and students designing materials.

• Government listing of online and multimedia educational resources
  One of a series of satellite town meetings.
  
  
• Physics Education Projects.
  Maintained by Jim Stewart of Western Washington University.
  
  
• Contemporary Physics Education Project.
  Non-profit organization of educators. Has charts and posters of physical phenomena, online and for purchase.

• Quarknet.
  An NSF-affiliated program connecting high-energy physics research centers with highshool teachers.
  
  
• "The Particle Adventure", a tutorial by Brookhaven National Labs.

• Astrophysics Science Project Integrating Research and Education (ASPIRE), at University of Utah
• Skylights, weekly online astronomy highlights, and stars of the week, by Jim Kaler of Illinois.
• NASA space science site.

• Geography and Earth Sciences resources, by Mark Francek of Central Michigan.

• Newsletter from PASCO Scientific.

• National Science Olympiad at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
• "ThinkQuest", online education resource site, inlcuding competitions.

• Science Ed Masters degree at Illinois State.

• Interactive Online Math Tests, and Galery of Multimedia Learning Units.
  A wonderful wealth of quizzes and java tutorials on calculus, elementary functions, elementary algebra, and even minkowski spacetime. Easily adapted to classroom. Part of the Math Online site at the University of Vienna website. NOTE: Math notation will not appear correctly unless viewed on Internet Explorer.
  For those with a bent for programming or developing: It would be nice if the applet "the graphs of sin, cos, and tan" on this page also allowed you to use different figures than just the circle; check out the top slider on the applet "quadratic equations 2" on this page--it would be great if they had the same thing for higher-order polynomials; it would be nice if, on the first applet "on the definition of the derivative" on this page, you could do different functions; on the applet on this page it would be nice if you could drag the line to have a different slope, and also to change the line to some other functions. Also very cool are the sequence and series calculators on this page.
  
  
• The Planimeter and Green's Theorem.
  Describing a classroom activity using a physical measuring device that works because of Green's Theorem.
  
  
• "20,000 Problems Under the Sea".
  A searchable collection of twenty-thousand math problems, culled from student math journals and competative examinations. Potentially useful for math teachers.
  
  
• Practice college math placement tests.
  Three practice placement tests, one for college algebra, one for pre-calculus, and one for calculus; from the math department at University of North Texas.
  
  
• "Problems to enjoy"
  A repository of math problems with solutions, at the primary school or high school level, mostly of the number-theory/geometry flavor.
  
  
• Count On.
  A site devoted to mathematics pedagogy and miscellany. Much at the primary school level, but also includes calculus exercises (with worked-out solutions), a 'virtual museum' of math and technology history (click "Matrix") interesting for anyone of any age, as well as wonderful multi-page explorations (click "Explorer") of optical illusions, Escher-like images, perspective in art ("anamorphic art"), and warping of planar grids.
  
  
• Analysis problems.
  Math-grad level exam problems, compiled by a visiting professor at Stony Brook.
  
  
• Printable Physics Handbook info.
  A printable PDF version of physical constants and other physics handbook info, courtesy of Glenn Elert of Midwood High School at Brooklyn College.
  
  
• NCTM Standards.
  Official homepage for the teaching standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Includes java examples and pointers to resources.
  
  
• Online publications of Andrew Wolgemuth.
  PDF versions of "Deductive Mathematics: an introduction to proof and discovery" (182 pages), "Deductive Mathematics--Alternate edition for teacher education" (215 pages), and "Outlining Proofs in Calculus" (52 pages). Potentially useful for students or teachers of mathematics.
  
  
• Papert dot org, and Planet Papert.
  Websites devoted to MIT Professor Seymor Papert--educational theorist, devotee of Piaget, co-founder of the MIT Media Lab, and author of the celebrated (in pedagogy circles) Mindstorms, about learning and encorporating technology in math education.
  
  
• "Marco Learning Systems"
  A compilation of writings on mathematics pedagogy. Articles and online versions of books (for instance, the famous Why Johnny Can't Add) discussing the history of mathematics cirricula, and how (and why) to inject enthusiasm in math pedagogy. Indespensible for anyone in teaching.
  
  
• Recommended Resources for Teaching Discrete Mathematics.
  From the Rutgers Center for Discrete Mathematics. Lists and describes recommended textbooks (as well as video and some online resources), and recommends discrete-mathematics books that should be on every teacher's shelf. Also mentions early elementary-level texts that have some math content.
  
  
• Students Against Testing
  This link is provided not as an endorsement of the site's viewpoints, but rather to remind educators of the frustration and mistrust of testing.
  
  
• "Society for a Return to Academic Standards".
  One professor's compliation of links regarding the debate about declining undergraduate performance.