Science Homework Help

Search the web for two (2) learning tools: for example, helpful animations, interactive exercises, You-tube movies, learning games, and so on. (These tools don’t have to be from professionals, by the way! – there are lots of imaginative YouTube videos created by inspired amateurs whose fresh approaches can sometimes be very effective.) The tools should be selected according to the following three criteria: 

1. Content – choose any two (2) general themes from the following list. For each of them, find one helpful web-based tool that addresses a fairly specific aspect of that theme.

• Basic motions: daily motions of the stars and planets, the changing seasons, eclipses, retrograde motion, the Ptolemaic universe, Kepler’s laws, etc.
• The physics of Galileo and Isaac Newton: three laws, gravity, conservation laws, etc.
• Rocketry, space flight, interplanetary navigation
• The nature and behaviour of light, including its interactions with atoms.
• Telescopes (on the ground or in space): their use, operation, etc.
• The fundamental nature of the Solar System and its constituents: properties of planets, comets, asteroids; etc.
• The search for other planetary systems.
• The active Earth: plate tectonics, seismology, etc.
• The greenhouse effect and global warming.
• Leftovers in the Solar System: comets, meteors, impact events, etc.
• SETI

2. Functionality and Effectiveness – the tool should enhance your understanding of the particular theme it is associated with, preferably with a fresh or particularly accessible treatment.

3. Timeliness – please make sure the tools you provide us with are current. Whenever possible, the tools should be from the past three (3) years. 

Once you have found the relevant on-line tools, please provide a brief explanation (in no more than two pages of text), addressing the following two aspects:

• Describe the tool and explain how it contributes helpfully to an understanding of the learning material. If the tool really clarified some ambiguity or misunderstanding for you personally, please explain why it was effective in that respect.
• The tool may not be ideal! — you might notice that some aspects of the presentation could be improved, or even that it contains actual misstatements or errors. If so, tell us what the shortcomings are and describe a way you think the tool could be improved.