Nearpod Brings PhET Interactive Simulations to Classroom Devices, Unveils 50 New Lessons to Make Science More Accessible and Fun

Nearpod, the platform helping districts in their digital evolution, today announces the launch of 50 new lessons in partnership with PhET Interactive Simulations. These lessons add PhET’s engaging simulations, developed by the University of Colorado Boulder, to Nearpod’s digital platform that is filled with features such as virtual reality and in-class evaluation. The new science lessons, which can be found here, span 6th-12th grade and will run on all devices including iPads.

The PhET project was founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman to provide free, interactive science simulations for teachers and students. Based on extensive educational research to ensure educational value and effectiveness, PhET’s intuitive, game-like simulations encourage learning through exploration and discovery to bolster classroom engagement and conceptual understanding. The simulations allow students to engage in physics, chemistry, earth science, biology and math concepts.

“We are excited to see our research-based simulations integrated into Nearpod’s platform and contribute to their growing interactive capabilities,” Kathy Perkins, Director of PhET, stated. “We’ve already seen many teachers enthusiastic about surrounding our simulations with prompts, assessments, and other resources within Nearpod, to create a full learning experience with simulations.”

Nearpod is used in 1 in 10 classrooms in the US and now includes lessons leveraging PhET simulations that: 

• Foster Inquiry -  Interactive simulations allow for students to actively explore STEM concepts to both ask and answer their own questions, providing meaningful learning experiences to complement labs or when lab equipment is not available.
• Provide Complete Lessons and Labs - Interactive simulations allow students to get hands-on and interact deeply with content.
• Explore Abstract Topics - Simulations are one of the best tools to help teachers provide exposure to complicated topics that are otherwise difficult to connect to the real world.

“We are always looking for ways to provide districts with the tools to equip students with 21st century, research-based skills and interactive content,” said Guido Kovalskys, CEO and cofounder of Nearpod. “Incorporating PhET’s simulations provides more students with access to labs that help them explore and improves their comprehension in science classes.”

This partnership comes on the heels of other notable collaborations, including Nearpod’s recent partnership with Lifeliqe, a K-12 science curriculum with interactive 3D models and augmented reality, and with the Unmanned Safety Institute (USI), the leading provider of safety education and training services to academic institutions, which brings hands-on drone curriculum to high school students. The company also added over 300 lessons to its platform in collaboration with Education.com and over a dozen lessons with hip-hop learning tool Flocabulary.  

About Nearpod:
Nearpod is an award-winning education technology company focused on developing digital learning tools, virtual reality and interactive content across mobile devices that provides teachers an easy and efficient way to leverage technology in the classroom.

Nearpod was co-founded in 2012 by Felipe Sommer, Emiliano Abramzon and Guido Kovalskys, and its team spans talent from Mckinsey & Co, Red Hat, Accenture, Pixar, Netscape as well as former teachers. It is backed by notable investors like Insight Venture Partners, Reach Capital, Storm Ventures, the Knight Enterprise Fund, Krillion Ventures, Stanford-StartX Fund, Marc Benioff and GSV Acceleration. 

About PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder: 
PhET Interactive Simulations, a project of the University of Colorado Boulder, was founded by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman in 2002. The project is known for its collection of over 140 innovative interactive simulations for STEM education. These powerful educational tools are based on extensive education research, and are used worldwide over 80 million times per year in K-12 and college settings. PhET is a registered trademark of The Regents of the University of Colorado. 
https://phet.colorado.edu

Media Contact:
Maggie Philbin
VSC for Nearpod
nearpod@vscpr.com 
203.394.1818

Dr. Kathy Perkins 
PhET Interactive Simulations 
kathy.perkins(at)colorado(dot)edu 
303.492.6714

Contact Information

Maggie Philbin

Sr. Manager

VSC for Nearpod

Contact via E-mail