Review for:Bloomfield's Online "How Things Work" website

If you used this resource in your own classroom, please add your review.

    

posted: on January 29, 2008 at 10:25PM

My rating of this resource: ****

My experience using this resource:
Physics

Topic I was teaching:
Electrostatics

My learning goal for which this resource was used:
I wanted students to connect what they had learned in the textbook with what they might see in the real world.

Course Level:
Honors or Advanced

How I/my students used the resource:
I was looking for facts about photocopiers (the voltage and the electric field involved.) I searched through the questions and problem sets in this site to find relevant information to put on a test (or a review sheet) for my students.

Value Added:
Provides practice or tutorial, Provides additional content, Increases student engagement and motivation, provides teacher with good information about practical appliations of Physics

Strengths:
In conjunction with Bloomfields book (which is NOT online)he covers ALL of the major topics of Physics (in an extended curriculum.) It is an EXCELLENT place to go when a student askes "so, how does this work?" because chances are high that someone else has asked that question and he's answered it on his site. He has lots of practical links between Physics and common devices / occurances found in the real world.

Weaknesses:
The site is difficult to understand (the organization is complex) and finding exactly what you are looking for is tough. In addition, it really assumes you have the book... There is still good information there, but not all of it is online.

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