麻豆影院

Doctoral candidate translates PhET Interactive Simulations into Spanish, making them more accessible to a global audience

Physics is challenging, but learning it in a second language adds an entirely different obstacle, says Diana L贸pez, who is doing what she can to make STEM subjects鈥攕cience, technology, engineering, and math鈥攎ore accessible to students who speak Spanish.

L贸pez, a doctoral candidate studying advanced technology at the Instituto Polit茅cnico Nacional (National Polytechnic Institute) in Mexico and currently an exchange student at the 麻豆影院, is spearheading an effort to translate CU鈥檚 and associated resources from English into Spanish.

The implications of translating PhET into Spanish extend beyond benefitting her home country.

鈥淭here are many English as Second Language students in the U.S. who can benefit from the translations as well, alongside other countries where Spanish is a primary language,鈥� states L贸pez. 鈥淭eachers appreciate it (if the resources) are in their native language.鈥�

For L贸pez, although it鈥檚 time-consuming work, translating PhET is personal.

鈥淭ranslating PhET is a passion project; it鈥檚 not for my PhD,鈥� says L贸pez.

As a high school science teacher in Mexico, L贸pez experienced first-hand the benefits of PhET. L贸pez used the , since 鈥渢here wasn鈥檛 any internet connection in my classroom.鈥�

鈥淚 taught physics and math to high school juniors and seniors in Mexico before pursuing my PhD, and I used the PhET Interactive Simulations in my classroom to help students visualize the activities they were studying,鈥� states L贸pez.

鈥淧hET provides visuals for the students so they can see and comprehend what they鈥檙e working on, plus they鈥檙e able to explore and make their own questions,鈥� says L贸pez. Further, 鈥淭hey can change something and immediately see what happens. That鈥檚 not always possible in a lab.鈥�

Altogether, 鈥淧hET gives students ownership over their learning,鈥� continues L贸pez. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tool that they can use to construct their own understanding,鈥� she says.

In Mexico, L贸pez would love to see technology utilized more in classrooms, but 鈥渋t鈥檚 currently a dream in most schools.鈥� She adds that 鈥渕ost of the schools don鈥檛 have the resources and teachers don鈥檛 know how to integrate it into their students鈥� learning process.鈥�

L贸pez鈥檚 PhD project is developing a dashboard for PhET simulations, which aims to help show teachers if their students are engaged. Currently, the simulations themselves do not easily show teachers which tools are being used or ignored. The dashboard aims to make that information more accessible.

For L贸pez, 鈥済ood questions aren鈥檛 a cookbook.鈥� PhET 鈥渟hows teachers what tools students use and don鈥檛 use.鈥� This is helpful, because every student uses the simulations differently.

鈥淚f a teacher sees that a student didn鈥檛 use a specific tool, but they know that it鈥檚 useful, the teacher can then show them how to use that specific tool to enhance the lesson.鈥�

So far, about 20 percent of the teacher tips and 10 percent of the activities have been translated into Spanish. L贸pez notes that Spanish is PhET鈥檚 second most-used language.

PhET, which initially stood for Physics, Education and Technology, now broadly covers most STEM-related subjects.

Especially when dealing with STEM subjects, comprehending minuscule details can be a challenge. 鈥淧hET makes the invisible visible,鈥� states L贸pez.