Library Home: Open Educational Resources by School: Physics and Astronomy

Virtual Course Material

MIT Open Courseware - Physics
Fully online courses with video lectures, exercises, quizzes and online readings in things like Relativity, Classical Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, etc. that can be freely reused by instructors and reviewed by students.
MIT Open Courseware - Planetary Science
Fully online courses with video lectures, exercises, quizzes and online readings that can be freely reused by instructors in planetary science, solar system dynamics, and observational astronomy.
MIT TechTV
Videos by MIT Department of Physics Technical Services Group

Labs and Simulations

Open Source Physics
Site dedicated to Physics teaching materials like simulations, models, and digital content and tools for all kinds of physics.
Online Physics (and other science) Simulations
Fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena from the PhET™ project at the University of Colorado.
Lab Manual Exchange
Share lab manuals with other physics and astronomy teachers. (Sign up required.)

Astronomy Apps

Moon Globe
Hold the Moon in your hands. Moon Globe turns your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad into a precision instrument for viewing Earth's Moon. Satellite imagery and topographic laser altimeter data are combined to render the Moon with realistic lighting in realtime 3D.
Free Apple
Mars Globe
Take a tour of the mysterious Red Planet. This virtual globe combines a high-resolution satellite map with laser altimeter data and advanced topographic lighting to present the planet Mars as it appears from above. An Introduction and Guided Tour present some of Mars' most intriguing features.
Free Apple
Planets
This app gives you in-depth information on all the planets. Locate planets in 2D or 3D mode and select different visibilities of the sky, such as X-ray, Infrared, Microwave and Radio. There is also a Globe function that lets you view a rotating 3D image of all the planets and the moon.
Free Apple

Open Textbooks

College Physics from OpenStax
Published by Rice University's OpenStax, this free College Physics textbook can be read online, in PDF, or on an iPad. It's peer reviewed, available for reuse in the classroom and customizable by instructors.
Open Access Physics Textbooks
Free digital textbooks on a wide range of Physics topics. Makes great supporting material , or combine the best of each to replace your current print textbook.
Teach Astronomy
This site provides a textbook, images, videos, and podcasts.

Images and Videos

Physics Lessons from Khan Academy
An excellent suite of tutorial videos explaining a variety of Physics concepts. Great if in class use or for students trying to master the concepts.
Astronomy Image Explorer
The Astronomy Image Explorer (AIE) is a tool for researchers working in the fields of Astronomy and Astrophysics to gain access to images published in peer-reviewed journals. AIE is populated with hundreds of thousands of images published in the journals of the American Astronomical Society.

Physics Apps

Nuclear
Build the elements of the periodic table by adding and subtracting the atomic building blocks of neutrons, protons and electrons with the swipe of your finger. An exciting, energetic and informative app.
Free (first half of the periodic table); Cost (second half) Apple
Pocket Physics
Pocket Physics is an easy-to-use, free app that covers a wide range of physical formulas with descriptions and images. Good reference tool for beginning and advanced Physics students.
Free Android

Ebooks in the Library

The library has an extensive collection of ebooks on a variety of topics. To find what is available, enter your subject in the library catalog and select as a phrase in the drop down menu. If a book is in ebook format, it will say view ebook in the record.

Almost all of the library's ebooks are multiuser. This means that your whole class could access the book simultaneously and for free!

OneSearch - Walter W. Stiern Library Catalog