PhET Blog

On January 10th, 2012, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) released a bulletin regarding security issues with Java. One of the recommendations in this bulletin is to disable Java in web browsers. In many cases, this will prevent running PhET simulations directly from the PhET web site.

If you are a user of PhET simulations, are currently running Java 7 and want to still be able to use PhET simulations, we recommend that you take the following steps:

• Upgrade to the latest version of Java.
• Disable Java from running in web browsers. Note that this will prevent the “Run Now” option from launching simulations from the PhET site. This article has information about how to perform this operation.
• Run the simulations by downloading them via the “Download” button, and then running locally.

PhET will continue to monitor the situation surrounding Java security issues and will send out an update when the problems are fully resolved.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this, please contact us at phethelp@colorado.edu.

Thank you for using and supporting PhET Interactive Simulations!

The University of Colorado Office of Information Technology will be performing a scheduled system reboot of the PhET server on Thursday, January 10 at 11:00 PM Mountain Standard Time. During this time, PhET (http://phet.colorado.edu) will experience periods of unavailability. We expect that the outage will last only 10 minutes and that we will be back online very quickly. However, if you experience issues, please e-mail the PhET Help Desk at phethelp@colorado.edu.

Thanks for your patience during our system maintenance.

Happy New Year!

And thank you to all those who pledged their support to PhET in 2012. We are looking forward to an exciting 2013 with new simulations as well as making our more popular sims tablet compatible.

Don’t forget to try the HTML5 prototypes at:

• Masses & Springs
• Energy Skate Park
• Build an Atom
• Concentration
• Faraday’s Electromagnetic Lab

A big ‘Thank You!’ to all of you who have already contributed to PhET during this campaign!

If you have considered a donation, but haven’t gotten to it yet, there’s still time!

It takes a village – our village of PhET users and supporters – to continue to bring these high quality science learning tools to teachers, like Amy from Texas, and their students.

“It truly brings tears to my eyes—not something done easily— when I can give them access to something as wonderful as your program.” – Amy P., 4th grade teacher, Dickinson, TX

Please become a PhET supporter with a donation today. Every donation – from small $10 donations to larger gifts – helps to fund the effort, and is much appreciated!

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Donate Today!

In our new video, Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman explains why he donated his Nobel prize money to PhET and why it’s important for our community to continue to support PhET.

Consider donating to PhET this holiday season – now through Network for Good to support both anonymous and recurring donation options.

Donate Today!

Last Spring in Montreal, Prof. Mike Dubson gave this talk on PhET Simulations: Student Engagement and Learning. The talk is presented in five parts of six minutes each. Thanks Mike for sharing your talk!

Help support PhET Donate to PhET’s Annual Campaign today.

It’s “Giving Tuesday”. Please consider including PhET in your annual donations, and help increase science and math literacy in your school and around the world. Support PhET: Donate today. 

Here’s a photo of PhET reaching students in Burundi.

With her background in math, Karina will be focusing on building our math simulation suite. For her Ph.D. thesis at the University of Florida, she studied “the instructional practices of math teachers who were successful with traditionally underperforming students.” She has a particular interest in culture, issues of equity, and the education of marginalized students.

Karina was attracted to PhET because, as a project, it puts out quality, research-based products for teachers – for free. In her free time, Karina likes to cook healthy vegetarian foods that even carnivores can enjoy.

Help support PhET Donate to PhET’s Annual Campaign today.

If you’ve recently updated to Mac OS X 10.7 or 10.8, you may have received the message:

“To open this Web Start application, you need to download
the Java Runtime Environment.”

That’s because Apple Java was removed during the latest update. So when you receive this message, click “More Info“, and you will be taken to the java.com website for Version 7 at http://www.java.com/en/download/help/mac_install.xml.
Note: Once you’ve installed Java, you may need to reload or quit your browser in order to enable Java in your browser.

If you’re running Mountain Lion OS X 10.8, Gatekeeper (the new program introduced in OS X 10.8 designed to prevent potentially malicious apps from launching) may block the launch of the PhET sim. To override this, either modify Gatekeeper’s default settings or explicitly right/control-click the application and choose Open.

If you have additional questions, please e-mail phethelp@colorado.edu.

Help support PhET Donate to PhET’s Annual Campaign today.

Dear Fellow Educators, Administrators, Education Resource Providers,

We need your help!

To help us secure future funding to advance our work and keep PhET free, and to make the site as useful as possible for you, we need to know more about how, where, and why you use PhET in your teaching, and how you see the simulations influencing your students’ learning. We also want your input on future directions for the PhET project.

We are seeking very broad representation, so please forward this invitation to any educators you know.

If you are …

K12 Teacher who teaches with PhET:
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5z4mrcuB1JwW9mZ

College Faculty who teaches with PhET:
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_a9TLQpQd0cRB6fz

Use PhET in your education work or product (but not in teaching K12 or college):
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5bEt1hYhrHhUIFT

Familiar with PhET, but do NOT USE PhET in your work:
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_e34gOkbneq7q0M5

If any of these links don’t work, go here:
http://tinyurl.com/phetsurvey
Or copy and paste one of the URLs above into your internet browser.

Your participation is entirely voluntary, and your individual responses to this survey will be confidential. If you would like your institution to appear on a list or map of PhET users, you will have an opportunity to provide permission.

The survey results will be compiled to help improve PhET. Only aggregated results or anonymous statements will be used in any publications or reports, be disseminated on our website, or used in presentations to funders, educators, or researchers.

Thank you for your time and feedback!

Your PhET Team,
Kathy Perkins, Kathy Dessau, Noah Podolefsky, Mike Dubson, Robert Parson, Trish Loeblein, Noah Finkelstein, Emily Moore, Ariel Paul, Julia Chamberlain, Karina Hensberry, John Blanco, Jon Olson, Chris Malley, Sam Reid, Sam McKagan, Danny Rehn, Jesse Garrison, Linda Wellmann, and Oliver Nix