Coming Soon

Now that Summer is well under way I have a decent amount of time each day to devote to working on this site. While superficially I know it doesn't look like a lot has changed, but I can assure you that I'm making a lot of nice progress behind the scenes. I've been spending the majority of my time so far working on the quality of the tools and simulators available on this site. As I write this I am happy to say that I currently have at least one app for each of the four main types of tools I'd like to offer here at Newton's Playground; Physics Simulators, Teacher Tools, Conceptual Trainers, and lastly Practice Generators. I realized that I haven't really updated the copy on any of the pages to really get into what my goal is here, so here's a brief description of my vision for those four pillars.

Each of these will have their own purpose and target audience here at this site:

• Physics Simulators

  • Who: Both Teachers and Students

  • What: Digital simulators of real world physics scenarios

  • Why:

    • Teachers can use it for demonstration and part of their lecture or assignments.

    • Students can use it for exploration, practice, in place of a lab they may have been absent for, and as tests of their understanding of material.

• Teacher Tools

  • Who: Teachers for the most part, with some fringe use cases for students

  • What: Tools to help make a physics teacher's life easier.

  • Why: I've been a physics teacher of every level there is for the last 11 years and I'm making just about every tool that I wish I had sometime in the last decade. I know these are all going to make my own job easier, hopefully you feel the same!

• Conceptual Trainers

  • Who: Students

  • What: Mastery focused exercises designed to train your conceptual understanding of various physics topics. Minimal (but not zero) quantitative calculations with a focus on the qualitative understanding.

  • Why: Have a student read about a concept, listen to it in lecture, write it down once, or go through one worksheet does not guarantee that they actually understand it. Conceptual Trainers are designed to REQUIRE mastery of the material before a student is able to actually complete it.

• Practice Generators

  • Who: Students and Teachers

  • What: Apps designed to provide a place for students to practice qualitative and quantitative skills as much as they need.

  • Why: Physics is not a rote memorization based subject, physics is a skill. You cannot master a skill without practice. These apps are for students who need to get their reps in on any particular topic. They're also for teachers who, like myself, have always had students come up at the end of a unit before a test and say "do you have any more practice problems I can do?" after they've already finished every worksheet you have. Now you have a place you can point them.

    • Eventually as a sort of middle ground in the Venn Diagram between these and the teacher tools, I'll eventually be working on worksheet generators based on both of these tools. That's a late stage goal though so don't look for a release date for that any time soon.

At the time of writing this I've just finished developing my first conceptual trainers and practice generators. I haven't gotten them to a point of publishing them here on this site yet but they're nearly there. I'm so excited for everything I've got in store and I can't wait to share it with everyone.

Stay tuned!

-Matt