Crayola Physics

There are two cool and very simple tools I recently came across that are designed to help kids learn basic concepts of physics in a fun and engaging way. The tools are called Crayon Physics (Windows only) and Phun (Windows and Mac) and were recently reviewed on the iLearn Technology blog that I follow. I had seen Crayon Physics before and shared it with my graduate students but this was the first time I had seen Phun. Both programs are very similar in what they allow students to do but Crayon Physics presents a task (moving a ball from one location to another) while Phun doesn't provide a specific task for students to complete. With both programs students are able to create shapes and see immediately what impact gravity and friction has on those shapes. That's a pretty simplified explanation of what can be done with these great tools but the best way to explore their capabilities is to watch the respective demo videos.