This course is aimed at high school courses in physics. No prior knowledge is assumed. You can see the table of contents by clicking on "Contents" to the right. The course clearly and visually presents topics many students find challenging. One advantage is these tutorials are self-paced, are done in familiar surroundings and done on a personal computer, rather than in the more formal setting of the classroom. Students today learn well from computers and the many animations, explanations and interactions engage them as the ideas are understood.
Developed by a team of international scientists and instructional designers led by Prof. Sanctuary of McGill University, these tutorials have received critical acclaim.
The PhysLINK.com physics resource web site said that "it is the best physics class-room and home study education software I have seen."
The programs can be installed and run on a variety of system configurations.
The minimum requirements are described below for PCs and MACs.
IBM/PC Compatible
Microsoft®Windows®2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows Server® 2003 and 2008; Windows XP Professional, Home Edition, or Tablet PC Edition with Service Pack 2 or 3; Windows Vista®Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with or without Service Pack 1; WIndows 7
Intel®1.3 GHz processor
128MB of RAM (256MB recommended)
Disk
Space: 1 Gig free hard drive space
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, 6.0 with Service Pack 1, 7.0 or 8.0; Firefox 2.0 or 3.0
1. General principles
2. Math review
3. Vectors
4. Kinematics
5. Projectile motion
6. Thermodynamics
7. Frames of reference
8. Forces
9. Newton's laws
10. Electromagnetic theory
11. Momentum & collisions
12. Pre-quantum experiments
13. Work & energy
14. Quantum mechanics
15. Rotational motion
16. Gravity
17. Waves
18. Sound waves
19. Special relativity
20. Nuclear structure
The program takes advantage of multimedia technology to present teachers
and students with a new way of approaching and understanding the
challenging concepts and ideas found in Physics.
User-friendly interface allows for easy navigation
Flexible plotting, drag & drop and other interactive exercises
Convenient pull down calculator, glossary, key word searches,
note pad, periodic table and many tables of useful data
Hundreds of 3-D visual demonstrations, movies, animations and
sound effects
Many concise voice comments help to emphasize key concepts
Over 200 hours of study material on each CD compiled by renowned
McGill professor Dr. Bryan Sanctuary
Target audience
Covers all the traditional and modern topics in General Physics (non calculus) in undergraduate science programs.
We encourage sales to Universities, Institutions and Home Groups by providing
Volume Discounts (found in step 2 above). These provide even greater savings over our already low prices, compared to hard copy textbooks.
Users: teachers
Use the power of interactive multimedia to motivate your students and provide them with a clearer understanding of ideas that were once more difficult to explain.
Promote the idea of more frequent individual study among your students and encourage them to explore various concepts and topics at their own pace.
The many 3-D animations facilitate the explanation of complex ideas and provides students with helpful visual representations.
Non-linear structure of the tutorial allows you the option of easily skipping to desired sections.
Give your students access to multimedia learning tools that can help your online course environments go beyond simply posting comments and communicating with others.
Accompany in-class lectures with a display of both graphics and text by using a conventional overhead projector. This can be easier and more effective than writing notes on a blackboard.
MCH tutorials contain many good ideas for possible exam questions
As a student, your main goals are to develop a comprehensive understanding of the central ideas in your chemistry and physics classes, and of course to get good grades. Our programs can be used as a great study and review tool for midterm and final exams.
The review sections are excellent for brushing up on previously learned concepts
The subject matter helps put new ideas into a meaningful context. You will understand the broader concepts by studying the details.
The interactive exercises allow you to truly engage and immerse yourself in the information. You can actively construct your own body of knowledge.
The visual representations can provide you with an additional way of understanding some of the most challenging academic content you will encounter in your academic career.
Quizzes and feedback provide you with an opportunity to assess your learning progress.
Author: TopTenReview General Physics (Non-Calculus) Review Overall Rating General Physics (Non-Calculus) is an educational science software title from MCH Multimedia. This application is designed to be a comprehensive high school or introductory college level course, complete with instructional text and audio explanations by a professor. In fact, the software functions almost like a well-designed textbook—so that it seems natural to talk about each topic as a chapter. This is an introductory course, but the material is challenging and definitely designed for more advanced high school students. The course requires some background in math—at least a basic understanding of some algebra and geometry principles. One of the first chapters is a helpful review of the necessary math.
Teaching Tools:
Instruction in MCH Multimedia's General Physics (Non-Calculus) is largely text-based. However, it does make good use of teaching tools that would not be possible in a traditional textbook. The screen is small and text is displayed in short, manageable chunks. In this way, students can easily focus on just one main idea before moving on to something else.
Most pages also have audio instruction. This audio is not simply a voiced version of the text, rather it's an additional explanation of the same topic. This feature simulates having a teacher or professor explain what you read in your textbook, which will be helpful for auditory learners. You can also choose to turn off the sound. Not every page has this audio instruction, and there is nothing to indicate which pages have audio available. It would be nice to see a graphic of some sort that alerts users to expect audio on a given page.
This application uses animations that vary from the simple to the complex. One of the more complex animations illustrates principles of general relativity by showing a single event (lightning striking a train) from two different points of view. Because physics is the study of matter and the forces of nature, the animations in the physics tutorials are especially plentiful and helpful. The program also makes excellent use of charts and graphs to illustrate ideas that are not obvious or concrete.
Most (but not all) of the sections include post-learning quizzes. In this way, students can check their own learning and see what topics they may not have fully understood. The quizzes generally have hints and explanations available if students get stuck.
Other tools include access to a basic calculator and online resources at MCH Multimedia's website, such as a periodic table, math principles and equations, and tables of handy information related to physics. The software also has a notebook feature. While the idea of an integrated note-taking tool is a good one, the virtual notebook is not as functional as a traditional notebook or word processor. You can't format the text, and once you enter a note, you can't edit it. This tool may be useful for some students, but others may find taking notes with a pen and paper an easier fit.
One of the stand-out tools in General Physics (Non-Calculus) is the Find feature. This is basically a searchable index that allows students to search the lessons for a certain word or phrase. From the search results, students can navigate to the found pages, and they will see their search term highlighted on the page.
Topics Covered:
This educational science software is designed to give in-depth instruction in physics. It covers the topics that you would generally expect to see in an advanced high school physics course or an introductory college course.
Topics covered in MCH Multimedia's General Physics (Non-Calculus) course:
•Math review
•Vectors
•Kinematics
•Projectile motion
•Frames of reference
•Forces
•Newton's laws
•Momentum and collisions
•Work and energy
•Rotational motion
•Gravity
•Thermodynamics
•Waves
•Sound
•Electrostatics
•Electromagnetic theory
•Pre-quantum experiments
•Quantum mechanics
•Special relativity
•Nuclear structure
Ease of Use:
General Physics (Non-Calculus) is fairly easy to install. You can purchase a physical disc or choose an internet download. We chose the download and found that installation was pretty straightforward. We did have a small problem in Vista, but an email to the company quickly solved the issue. Once you've installed the program, you'll need activation codes from MCH Multimedia to activate it.
Using this educational science software is also straightforward. There's a lot of information, and finding your way around can be challenging at first. However, once you get the hang of how the information is organized, navigation is pretty simple. On the right of the screen is a navigation bar which shows you where you are in each chapter. When you click on different chapter sections, you'll see different subheadings that you can access. There is also a toolbar on the far right of the screen. From here you can navigate to the main menu, chapter headings, the notebook and the table of contents. The table of contents marks the sections students have already visited with a check mark, helping them keep track of where they are. The Find tool and the quiz questions for the chapter can also be accessed from this toolbar. The last button on the toolbar will mute the audio.
Help/Support:
The in-program help menu directs you back to MCH Multimedia's website. There you'll find a physical address and an email address to contact for technical support. In our email communication with MCH Multimedia, we found them to be helpful and responsive to our questions.
Summary:
General Physics (Non-Calculus) is a comprehensive piece of educational science software. It is ideal for advanced high school students or introductory college students looking for a complete course in physics. The application might also be useful for students who want to supplement their school work, or for anyone wanting to brush up on general physics at that level. The depth of the content and the variety of teaching tools (text, audio, charts, graphs and animation) make General Physics (Non-Calculus) a great educational science software choice for students who want a stand-alone, in-depth science course.
Microsoft®Windows®2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows Server® 2003 and 2008; Windows XP Professional, Home Edition, or Tablet PC Edition with Service Pack 2 or 3; Windows Vista®Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with or without Service Pack 1; WIndows 7 
User-friendly interface allows for easy navigation