Physics Phun!!!!!!!

Physics Phun, is super fun. It an be used to simulate almost anything in the world. Once you download the program you can play along with it. On a basic level you have your main options to select and resize things, fix and change them using different functions (ex: gravity and air). You can load scenes that they already have set-up. For example if you are teaching fluid dynamics you can use a fountain to explain the concept.

Advantages of Phun are that it is free, which is nice for teachers. It allows students to personalize their work, which is always nice when trying to adhere individuality and uniqueness. The teacher can look for ways in which different students take upon the assignment using the same tools. Due to different students having different strengths and different weaknesses, they would come up with a range of different ideas. Phun allows science to be looked at in a holistic way.

Some of the disadvantages of Phun are in reference to there being a learning curve to it. Also, you need to play around with it. If the teacher does not provide a clear focus to it, students can drift off and end up just spending countless amount of time just mindlessly playing. For that reason teachers would need to steer the students in the right decision. Also, with the limitations of technology, not all students may be able to access Phun, because of the fact that they might not have computers.

If I were teaching physics, I would definitely look into introducing this tool in the classroom. It would be useful to be used as a resource for students to turn to. Due to the fact that I have ever been good at physics, I think that this aid would not only help me visually understand but it would also help myself and my students learn together.

Physics Phun can be downloaded at: http://www.phunland.com/wiki/Home

Once the software is downloaded onto your desktop or laptop you do not need internet to run the program. That is great because if you are a teacher on call for the day or something, you can simply take your laptop to the classroom and introduce Physics Phun! You can work with your class to emerge creativity into learning.