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Physics 2000

Address: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/

To quote from the site:
What are the goals of the Physics2000 Educational Initiative?

To make physics more accessible to students and people of all ages and to counter its current negative image.
by developing an innovative Internet Website, aimed at all ages, emphasizing imagery, interactivity and hierarchical organization.
by developing live classroom courses for undergraduate non-science majors with unconventional topical organization and web support.
To demonstrate the connection between modern technology and earlier basic research.
by working backwards from familiar current devices and technologies to general principles established much earlier by basic experiment and theory.
To foster an appreciation of the accomplishments of 20th century physics, as we approach the year 2000.
by focusing public attention on current research achievements in physics and explaining their significance.
by developing new inderdisciplinary and cross-topical undergraduate courses for both majors and non-majors.

The site covers these categories: Advanced Topics, Atomic Theory, Electrodynamics, Electrostatics, Energy, Light, Quantum Mechanics, Wave Motion.

Content: 28/30
Aesthetics: 13/15
Organization & Navigation: 11/15
Interactivity: 20/20
Community: 0/20
Overall: 72/100

Content

Content: 28/30

Physics 2000 takes a non-traditional approach to its content. Rather than dry, textbook style lectures-in-a-book, the site uses cartoons and a question-and-answer format that makes for an easy read. The content that is covered is tied in with "Einstein's Legacy" and the site makes efforts to make physics seem interesting, alive and active. There is also a great deal of amount of practical things explained, covering such objects as CAT Scans and Laptop screens. The content, though fairly narrow, is well thought-out and impressively constructed. Many advanced topics are covered.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics: 13/15

The site defaults to frames, but thankfully they can be turned off. Without frames, however, most of the navigational benefits disappear and the site is made much harder to use. A lot of information is crammed into a very small area, but the cartoon drawings and clean design enhance the site's value. The site would benefit from some simplification with respect to navigation.

Organization & Navigation

Organization: 11/15

The navigation and organization of this site is a bit cumbersome, primarily because there is a lot of the content and the site attempts to make all of it accessible at once. It would have been better if a non-framed design would have been used so that lower-resolutions could view content with greater ease, but at high-resolutions the frames are somewhat manageable and the site is fairly easy to get around in.

Interactivity

Interactivity: 20/20

Rather than separating interactive content from static content, Physics 2000 combines the two, creating a useful reference tool with built in Java applets. The applets are relevant to the information and are immediately at hand. An index of all applets is also available, allowing visitors to find particular applets quickly without browsing all of the text.

Community

Community: 0/20

No community aspects are present on this site.

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