Sims in the middle school

PhET Interactive Simulations Project at the University of Colorado has developed over 85 interactive simulations, all of which are free, for students and teachers to use within classrooms to... See More

PhET Interactive Simulations Project at the University of Colorado has developed over 85 interactive simulations, all of which are free, for students and teachers to use within classrooms to help students understand a variety of concepts. I have used the sims with my middle school students as both a demonstration as well as a supplement provided for students to use at home. Sims are available for Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science and Math. A big advantage to the sims is students are able to experience labs that we couldn’t otherwise do, either because of lack of equipment or constraints on time.

Simulations in the Middle School Classroom

We used this article in our Professional Learning Community, PLC, to help build understanding of the use of simulations, or Sims, in our middle school classroom. PhET Interactive Simulation... See More

We used this article in our Professional Learning Community, PLC, to help build understanding of the use of simulations, or Sims, in our middle school classroom. PhET Interactive Simulations from the University of Colorado has developed over 85 interactive simulations to enhance student learning. I’ve used many of the simulations in m Design and Engineering classroom, a favorite of the students is “Circuit Construction Kit”. This one in particular has been useful because we no longer have the budget to replace old and missing electronic kit parts. Student learning continues even though the real hands on materials are gone. The “Sims and Benchmarks” table does a nice job highlighting sims available for use within each content area. Lots of examples are available explaining how the authors have used the sims in their own classroom along with samplings of questions to guide student learning. The best part is, sims can also be downloaded from the PhET site for offline use.