Activity Based Physics

In 1997 and 1998, Wiley's physics editor, Stuart Johnson, and an informally constituted group of curriculum developers and educational reformers known as the Activity Based Physics Group began discussing the feasibility of integrating a broad array of curricular materials that are physics education research-based. This led to the assembly of the Activity Based Physics Suite.

The Physics Suite includes materials that can be combined flexibly to meet the needs of instructors working in vastly different learning environments. The Interactive Lecture Demonstration Series is designed primarily for use in lecture sessions. Other Suite materials can be used in laboratory settings including the Workshop Physics Activity Guide, the Real Time Physics Laboratory modules, and Physics by Inquiry. Additional elements in the collection are suitable for use in recitation sessions such as the University of Washington Tutorials in Introductory Physics (available from Prentice Hall) and a set of Quantitative Tutorials developed at the University of Maryland. A textbook entitled Understanding Physics has been developed for use with the other Suite Materials. The Activity Based Physics Suite is rounded out with a collection of thinking problems, developed at the University of Maryland.

For detailed descriptions of the curricula in the Physics Suite, please see the Activity Based Physics website.

Downloads

Experiment files for Interactive Lecture Demonstrations and Real Time Physics modules are available for PASCO sensors below. These files are provided free of charge and are not guaranteed in any manner. Please let us know if you find any of these files to be incorrect.

Note: Most of these downloads are compressed in .zip format to shorten download times. If you are having troubles with this, you can download Winzip or Stuffit to "unzip" these files.

Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILD)

  • ILD_PP.zip - ILD files for Xplorer GLX or PASPORT systems.
  • ILD_SW.zip - ILD files for ScienceWorkshop system.

Real Time Physics (RLT) Modules

High School Activities

  • High School Activity Based Physics CD (SE-6651)

    As part of the NSF-sponsored Activity Based Physics High School Institute program (Grant No. ESI-9819626), select portions of RealTime Physics, and Workshop Physics and Tools for Scientific Thinking curricula have been adapted for high school use.

    See order information for the Activity Based Physics CD (SE-6651)

Workshop Physics Modules – Coming Soon