Online Teaching Resources

The American Association of Physics Teachers shares these resources for physics educators to facilitate remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As many physics educators move to online teaching, The Physics Teacher (TPT) and American Journal of Physics (AJP) teams have compiled a collection of specialized articles that focus on remote learning. These new articles highlight how to teach lessons, the use of mobile and smartphones for lab experiments, and other activities that can be adapted for use by students at home. The articles have been made free to read, download and share for a limited time.

From The Physics Teacher

Recommendations for emergency remote teaching based on the student experience, by Bethany Wilcox and Michael Vignal

Redesigning assessments for remote learning, by Dolores Gende

Virtual labs and simulations: Where to find them and tips to make them work, by James Lincoln

Practical Conronavirus Physics: Face masks & ventilation, by Dan MacIsaac

Practical online physics teaching productivity resources: CamScanner and FlipGrid, by Dan MacIsaac

From American Journal of Physics

Two-penny physics: Teaching 2D linear momentum conservation, by Lorenzo Galante and Ivan Gnesi

Computer-based learning in an undergraduate physics course: Interfacing a mobile phone and matlab to study oscillatory motion, by Ernesto Momox and Charby Ortega De Maio

Care to read further? AAPT members have full online access to The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics as a feature of membership. To access any and all of the articles below, join AAPT today!

From The Physics Teacher

Using Smartphones

Labs and Other Exercises
Visualizing sound directivity via smartphone sensors Adapting real-time physics for distance learning with the IOLab
Tilting motion and the moment of inertia of the smartphone Replacing lab report grading by online lab quizzes
Enhancing physics demos using iPhone slow motion Do-it-yourself low-cost desktop lightboard for engaging flipped learning videos
Analyzing elevator oscillation with the smartphone accelertion sensors Robert A. Millikan and the oil drop experiment
Smartphone astronomy Five tips for integrating Khan Academy in your course
Cracking knuckles – A smartphone inquiry on bioacoustics Using real data from the Kepler mission to find potentially habitable planets: An introductory astronomy exercise
Five smartphone experiments that don’t need apps
Studying ray optics with a smartphone
A purely geometrical method of locating a smartphone accelerometer
Electrocardiography with a smartphone

From American Journal of Physics

Optical absorption, scatterin, and multiple scatterin: Experimental measurements using food coloring, India ink, and milk Water bottle flipping physics
Using Kepler’s laws and Rutherford scattering to chart the seven gravity assists in the epic sunward journal of the Parker Solar Probe Newton’s graphical method for central force orbits
When dippling toast into a cup of tea leads to a scientific investigation Using a shoebox spectrograph to investigate the differences between reflection and emission
Demonstrating the elliptical orbit of Mars using naked eye data Sinking bubbles in stout beers
Gravity-driven fluid oscillations in a drinking straw The rainbow in the box
The candle seesaw A compact disc under skimming light rays
Manual timing in physics experiments: Error and uncertainty Oscillations in a half-empty bottle
On the determination of accelerometer positions within host devices The physics of a popsicle stick bomb