Author Archives: Van Bich Tran

NSD OER Grant Team

Principal Investigator

Grant Coordinator

  • Joshua (Josh) Tan, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy ( Aug. 2019- June 2020)
    Email: jotan@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-798-6179
  • Marta Kowalczyk, Assistant Professor of Chemistry ( Aug. 2020 – June 2020)
    Email: mkowalczyk@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-349-4099

Faculty

Physics

  • Roman Senkov, Associate Professor of Physics (Course Coordinator)
    Email: rsenkov@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-349-4017
  • Xin Gao, Assistant Professor of Physics (Course Coordinator)
    Email: xgao@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-482-5964
  • Joshua (Josh) Tan, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy (Course Coordinator)
    Email: jotan@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-798-6179
  • Allyson Sheffield, Associate Professor of Physics
    Email: sheffield@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-349-4007

Chemistry

Biology

Library Support

  • Van Bich Tran, Open Educational Resources and Open Access Adjunct Librarian
    Email: vtran@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-482-7613
  • Elizabeth Jardine, Assistant Professor, Metadata Librarian
    Email: ejardine@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-482-5450
  • Ian McDermott, Associate Professor, Instruction Librarian, Coordinator of Library Instruction, OER Campus Representative
    Email: imcdermott@lagcc.cuny.edu Phone: 718-482-5430/5476

Physics and Astronomy OER

Browse Content

The links below are intended to provide a jump start with a few specific resources. They are not exhaustive. Use Google Advanced Search (set “usage rights” at the bottom to “free to use share or modify” ), OASIS, MERLOT, OER Commons, OpenEdCuny, and other OER search tools to find updated and additional resources and connect with others. CC Search or the CC Search Browser extension makes it easy to locate, download and cite images. Stay connected by joining disciplinary OER and general OER communities.

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Textbooks and Lecture Slides

Astronomy

  • Astropedia
    An introduction to the nature of the universe. Use it to research or review our solar system, stars, galaxies, and the history of the universe. Each chapter has a set of corresponding homework questions.
  • Astronomy – OpenStax*
    An introductory book on astronomy.
  • Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe (CK-12 Flexbooks) by Prof. Debra Fischer, PhD. and Lily Zhao, PhD candidate, Yale University

Physics

  • College Physics – OpenStax*
    Meets standard scope and sequence requirements for a two-semester introductory algebra-based physics course. The text is grounded in real-world examples to help students grasp fundamental physics concepts.
  • Simple Nature
    A calculus-based physics textbook meant for the type of freshman survey course taken by engineering and physical science majors, or for AP Physics C. It uses a nontraditional order of topics, with energy coming before force.
  • Motion Mountain
    An entertaining and free e-book on physics – the science of motion. Comes in 6 volumes: 1) Fall, Flow and Heat; 2) relativity and Cosmology; 3) Light, Charges, and Brains; 4) the Quantum of Change; 5) Pleasure, Technology,and Stars; 6) The Strand Model-A Speculation on Unification.

*Lectures slides or problem solutions for OpenStax books can be obtained by signing up as an instructor or student at Openstax. Some of the lecture slides and textbook exercises are also available through the OERCommons, MERLOT, and Libretexts. All 33 OpenStax books, including physics and astronomy textbooks, are also available as PressBooks versions at BCcampus.

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Homework and Exercises

MyOpenMath is a free, open source, online course management system for mathematics, chemistry, physics and other quantitative fields. Functions include randomizing questions, online tests, discussion forum, and automatic grading.

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Lab Experiments and Manuals

  • Online Labs for Introductory Level Astronomy
    “The Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project provides online laboratories targeting the undergraduate introductory astronomy audience. Each lab consists of background materials and one or more simulators that students use as they work through a student guide. Pretests and posttests can be used to gauge student learning.”

Virtual labs

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Interactives, Simulations and Games

  • Stellarium
    “Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.”
  • Sky Gazer
    “View the sky from any place on Earth or in the Solar System, over a timespan of ten thousand years from the present.” Includes sky chart, realistic planet graphs, eclipses, historic sky simulations, phases of the moon, and paths of the poles and planets.
  • Neave Planetarium
    An interactive sky map. Requires Adobe Flash Player.
  • Google Sky
    Planetarium with links to other Astronomy resources.
  • OpenSpace
    A NASA funded “open source interactive data visualization software designed to visualize the entire known universe and portray our ongoing efforts to investigate the cosmos.”
  • PHet Astronomy Simulations
    “PhET provides fun, free, interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations. We extensively test and evaluate each simulation to ensure educational effectiveness. These tests include student interviews and observation of simulation use in classrooms. The simulations are written in Java, Flash or HTML5, and can be run online or downloaded to your computer.”

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Tests, Quizzes and Assessments

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Multimedia and Images

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Free to Access Courses, Journals and OER Hubs

Astronomy

Physics

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Other Resources

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine Online and PDFs of different subjects that can be downloaded for free by the chapter or the entire book.

Attributions/Credits

The sources listed above are copied or adapted from:

Recent MERLOT Science and Technology OER

The results below are from the RSS feed based on a MERLOT Collection search query for any material posted for Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, with Creative Commons or any licenses, within Science and Technology, in English, for for College General Ed and College Lower and Upper Divisions audience. Set your own RSS.

Warning: The RSS is automatic and may pull in irrelevant or inappropriate content. If you open an inappropriate content, alert the site administrator and MERLOT (on the content page, click on “Report as inappropriate” on the right side). Inappropriate sites will be flagged when the administrator is alerted. Past 90 days or all dates is from January 31, 2021.

Astronomy OER listed on MERLOT

Up to ten results are displayed below, from the RSS feed based on a MERLOT Collection search query for Astronomy, filtered for any materials, any license, all dates, in English, for College General Ed and College Lower and Upper Divisions audience.

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Biology OER listed on MERLOT

Up to ten results are displayed below, from the RSS feed based on a MERLOT Collection search query for biology, filtered for any materials, Creative Commons license, all dates, in English, for College General Ed and College Lower and Upper Divisions audience.

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Chemistry OER listed on MERLOT

Up to ten results are displayed below, from the RSS feed based on a MERLOT Collection search query for chemistry, filtered for any materials, Creative Commons license, all dates, in English, for College General Ed and College Lower and Upper Divisions audience.

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Physics OER listed on MERLOT

Up to ten results are displayed below, from the RSS feed based on a MERLOT Collection search query for Physics, filtered for any materials, any license, all dates, in English, for College General Ed, College Lower and Uppers Divisions audience.

  • Open at the Margins: Critical Perspectives on Open Education
    August 17, 2020 Open At The Margins: Critical Perspectives on Open Education is a pertinent book on Open Education, “containing 38 chapters, contributed by 43 diverse authors and represents a starting point toward curating and […]
  • Graphing with Excel
    July 23, 2020 Basic step-by-step instructions for using Microsoft Excel to produce charts, specifically XY Scatter charts. Includes screenshots from Excel ’04 using Mac OS X 10.4.9 though it parallels the Windows version well. | […]
  • H5P OER HUB
    June 16, 2020 H5P’s Authoring Tool (https://h5p.org) is used by the global Open Education and K-12 Education Community to create and share Open Educational Resources (OER). H5P is compatible with several Classroom Management Systems and […]
  • Introduction to Physics OpenStax
    May 18, 2020 Introduction to Physics is an adaptation of Concepts of Physics, itself an adaptation based on modules from OpenStax College Physics. Some of the modules removed from College Physics have been put back […]
  • ORCID: Connecting Research & Researchers
    April 3, 2020 ORCID provides a “persistent identifier” (an ORCID) that you own and control, and that distinguishes  you from every other researcher. You can connect your iD with your professional information – affiliations, grants, […]
  • Smithsonian Open Access: Create. Imagine. Discover
  • February 26, 2020 Welcome to Smithsonian Open Access where you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you now have easier access to […]
  • University Physics Volume
    February 18, 2020 Physics is devoted to the understanding of all natural phenomena. In physics, we try to understand physical phenomena at all scales—from the world of subatomic particles to the entire universe. Despite the […]
  • Digital Histology
    February 3, 2020 The teaching of histology increasingly relies on digital resources in lieu of traditional microscope laboratories. Digital Histology provides an open educational resource that combines a digital atlas with extensive descriptive text. It […]
  • Anatomy and Physiology
    January 30, 2020 Anatomy and Physiology is a dynamic textbook for the two-semester human anatomy and physiology course for life science and allied health majors. The book is organized by body system and covers standard scope […]
  • Fluids dynamics equations for perfect fluids
    December 21, 2019 Se presentan las dos ecuaciones fundamentales utilizadas en dinámica de fluidos, en el caso de fluidos perfectos (sin viscosidad): la ecuación de continuidad y la ecuación de Bernouilli.

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Prior MERLOT Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics RSS posts (to be added after April 1, 2021, starting on page 2.)

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