Educational Links

Duke Physics Challenges.

Courses I have taught :

• Physics 134: Introduction to Astronomy.
• Physics 142, the second semester introductory physics course taken mainly by life science students.
• Physics 162, the second semester introductory physics course for students who might major in physics or biophysics.
• Physics 174S: Seminar on Currrent Biophysics Research
• Physics 363: Introduction to Thermal and Statistical Physics
• Physics 501: Seminar for the Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems
• Physics 464: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
• Physics 465: Applications of Quantum Mechanics
• Physics 513: Introduction to Nonlinear Dynamics
• Physics 813: Advanced Topics in Nonlinear and Complex Systems

Astronomy:

• Astronomy Education Review
• Astronomy Picture of the Day, lots of interesting patterns from planetary surfaces to galactic structure.
• Links from my Physics 134 introductory astronomy course.

• Amazing Space (Hubble Space Telescope Site)
• AstronomyCenter.org, database for people teaching introductory astronomy courses.
• Chandra X-ray telescope
• CLEA: Contemporary Laboratory Experiences in Astronomy.
• Messier catalog of astronomical objects.
• Shapley Visiting Lectureships in Astronomy, list of astronomers able to give interesting public talks.

Biology:

• Reports:
  • Bio2010 report by Stryer et al, need to change physics, math, bio undergraduate curricula.
  • Vision & Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A View for the 21st Century
• Bioportal of North Carolina
• BioQuest, curriculum consortium to support educators interested in reforming undergraduate biology.
• Books (online):
  • Bookshelf of the National Center for Biological Information. Some books here can be completely displayed, others one can only read pages that match some search criterion.
  • Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4th edition, Alberts et al (searchable)
• BrainFacts.org
• Bugbytes: recorded sounds of many insects.
• The Computable Plant.
• Darwin (online works of Charles Darwin).
• EcoBeaker, ecology teaching software.
• Human Genome Project Working Draft.
• iBio Seminars, free online seminars of top biologists, sponsored by HHMI.
• Inner Life of a Cell, amazing animation of cellular events.
• Mission Biotech, NSF video game for teaching biology.
• Rediscovering Biology: a professional development course for high school biology teachers (Annenberg Media).
• USA Biology Olympiad.

Blogs related to science

• Biocurious
• Cocktail Party Physics.
• Cosmic Variance.
• Inkycircus.
• The Panda's Thumb
• Pharyngula.
• RealClimate
• ScienceBlogs.com.
• Sciencegeekgirl

Chemistry:

• Books of general interest:
  • Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks.
  • The Disappearing Spoon and other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world froom the Periodic Table of Elements, Sam Kean.
• carolina.com chemistry projects.
• Molecule of the Month.
• Nonlinear Chemical Dynamics Movies, John Pojman.
• Steven Haderlie's AP Chemistry Resource Page.
• UNC-Chapel Hill Chemistry Fundamentals Program.
• Periodic Tables:
  • Periodic table of the elements, picture based, from Popular Science.
  • Periodic Table of Videos, video for each element.

Companies:

• American 3B Scientific company: science equipment, demos.
• Arbor Scientific (educational devices)
• Edmund Scientific
• Edudex: Videos and CD-ROMS for physics and chemistry education.
• Elenco Eletronics, Inc.,, electronic kits for hobbyists and students.
• Films for the Humanities & Sciences
• Fisher Science Education Catalog.
• Klinger Educational Physics Experiments.
• Shodor Education Foundation, based in Durham, NC.
• Teacher's Video Company

Computer Science:

• Chinook, invincible checkers-playing program that one can play online.
• Computational Science Education Project (CSEP).
• Computer Science Resources from AcademicInfo.
• MSW Logo.
• Online books:
  • Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation, free online book by David Touretzky.
  • Dive Into Python
  • How C Programming Works, part of the howstuffworks webpage.
  • Software Carpentry, software engineering for scientsits and engineers.
  • Thinking in C++, 2e by Bruce Eckel.
• USA Computing Olympiad (USACO).

Demos and Projects:

• Chemistry demos.
• St. Olaf list of projects for middle school children (mainly physics).

Environmental Science:

• ClimateChoices.org
• The Discovery of Global Warming.
• Encyclopedia of Earth.
• RealClimate: climate science from climate scientists.
• Rocky Mountain Institute of Amory Lovins.
• Sustainable energy --- without the hot air, by David MacKay.

K-12 Education:

• Achieve, an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization that helps states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments and strengthen accountability
• A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas
• Various documents at the National Academies Press such as "Taking Science to School" (2007), "Learning Science in Informal Environments" (2009), "Surrounded by Science" (2010).

Linguistics

• Ethnologue, Languages of the World.

Open Education Resources

• Connexions
• Coursera, free online courses, presently mainly related to computers science.
• Flatworld Knowledge, free and open textbooks PeerInstruction.net
• Merlot, Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.
• OpenLearningInitiative of Carnegie Mellon.

Organizations:

• American Association of Physics Teachers
• MentorNet for diversity in engineering and science.
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, with a link to the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics.
• National Educational Association.
• National Science Board.
• NC Project SEED, A Science Educational Experience for High School Students.
• NC State K-12 Directory
• NC State Physics Education effort.
• Public School Forum of North Carolina
• U. S. Department of Education.
• Wright Center for Science Education at Tufts.

People:

• Peoplesarchive.com, video interviews of many prominents scientists (unfortunately a commercial site).
• Don Herbert, Mr. Wizard.
• Robert J. Beichner , NC State. SCALE-UP project.
• Robert Krampf, Science Education Co. Many interesting friendly videos about science.

Physics

Reports:

• AAPT National Tast Force on Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP). January, 2003.
• Bio2010 report by Stryer et al, need to change physics, math, bio undergraduate curricula.
• Kirby/Gollub Report on undergraduate physics education.
• Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools, with panel reports on physics and other specific areas (biology, chemistry, and math).
• Science and Engineering Indicators (NSF Report).

Statistics:

• Freeware statistical programs.
• The R Project for Statistical Computing.
  • ESS: Emacs Speaks Statistics, to run R under emacs.

Wikis related to education:

• Curriki, global education and learning community.
• Wikipedia.