top of page

Physics Toolbox Play

*This app is now only accessible as a mode in the Android and iOS versions of Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite in the main menu. Those who previously downloaded the stand-alone app may still have it on their device.

This app, designed for outreach programs to introduce children ages 8+ and their families to sensors, physics, and physics careers, was developed thanks to the award of a mini grant from the American Physical Society, as a sub-award from the National Science Foundation, grant NSF#1404843.
This funded project is also supported through guidance from an esteemed leadership team and international advisory board:

Leadership & International Advisory Board

Kyle Forinash (co-PI)

New Albany, IN, USA

Kyle is a professor of physics at Indiana University Southeast. He has over 30 years of experience studying the use of technology in the physics classroom, and is a prolific publisher about the use of mobile sensors. 

Chrystian Vieyra (co-PI)

Washington, DC, USA

Chrystian Vieyra is a software engineer, co-founder, and developer of Vieyra Software. 

Rebecca Vieyra (co-PI)

Washington, DC, USA

Rebecca Vieyra is co-founder of Vieyra Software, and was previously an award-winning high school physics teacher who was named an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow (2014-2015), a Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (2013), and a National Board Certified Teacher (2010). She is currently a doctoral student in Science Education at the University of Maryland, as is manager of a STEM teacher education network as a major hemispheric diplomatic organization.

Diana Price (co-PI)

Alexandria, VA, USA

Diana is the Youth Services Manager at Alexandria Library. She serves as co-PI on this project, and arranges a variety of Family Physics events to encourage library patrons and community members to learn about physics through mobile devices.

Benjamin Xu (Software Developer)

Austin, TX, USA

Benjamin is a rising junior in at the University of Texas - Austin working toward a B.S. in Computer Science. Benjamin grew up in New York City and is a graduate of the prestigious Hunter College High School for intellectually gifted students.

Cecilia Cabeza (Advisor)

Montevideo, Uruguay

Cecilia Cabeza is professor of physics at the Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de la República, Uruguay. Her research interests focus on nonlinear physics, chaos, fluids and the teaching of experimental physics. Cecilia holds a cotutelle doctorate from Republica University and Paris VII University (France). Cecilia is a member of SmarterPhysics.

Joel Chevrier (Advisor)

Grenoble, France

Joel Chevrier is a professors of physics at the University of Grenoble, and founder of the first international MOOC focused on smartphone physics for the general public. Learn more about this MOOC at https://sites.google.com/site/joelchevrier/imecaprof-en

Manuel A. Gonzalez (Advisor)

Valladolid, Spain

Dr. Manuel Á. González graduated in Physics at University of Valladolid (Spain). His PhD consisted on the study of the atomic line broadening in plasmas. In the field of plasma diagnostics, he has usually collaborated and published papers with researchers from the University of Marseilles, the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, the Institute of Physics in Belgrade, the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot (Israel) and the University of Florida at Gainesville, between others. In parallel, he has also worked on the development of different tools for teaching physics as virtual laboratories in the Internet or mobile applications and mobile environments for learning physics, as well as the use of mobile devices for doing experiments in Physics laboratories. In this field he has collaborated with researchers of Germany, USA and Brazil.

Arturo Marti (Advisor)

Montevideo, Uruguay

Arturo Martí is professor of Physics at Universidad de la República (Uruguay). He completed his PhD in Physics from the Universitat de Barcelona in 1997. For many years his research interests were focused on traditional academic topics centered in fluids and nonlinear physics, but recently he has also become involved in science popularization programs, the organization of physics Olympiads and teacher training workshops. Recently, he is developing physics experiments using smartphones. Arturo is a member of SmarterPhysics.

Martin Monteiro (Advisor)

Montevideo, Uruguay

Martín Monteiro is professor of physics and laboratory coordinator at the School of Engineering, Universidad ORT Uruguay in Montevideo, Uruguay. He is engaged in several initiatives to disseminate science, like blogs, workshops, outreach activities, the organization of physics and astronomy Olympiads, scientific photographic contests, among others. His main topics of interest are physics education, scientific art, history of science, physics toys, physics everywhere, Fermi problems and experimental and computational physics. In the last few years he has been developing physics experiments using new technologies like open-source hardware and smartphones. Martin is a member of SmarterPhysics.

Ann-Marie Pendrill (Advisor)

Lund, Sweden

Ann-Marie Pendrill has a background in computational atomic physics. Since 2009 she is the director of the Swedish National resource centre for physics education at Lund university. She likes to use informal settings, including playgrounds and amusement parks for physics education, from preschool to university.

Giovanni Pezzi (Advisor)

Naples, Italy

Giovanni is a retired high school physics teacher in Italy, and coordinator of the Italian Association of Physics Teachers' topical group dealing with smartphone science. 

Jean-Luc Richter (Advisor)

Lyon, France

Jean-Luc Richter is a physics and chemistry teacher in Alsace. He was one of the coordinators of the iStage2 "Smartphones in Science Teaching" booklet from Science on Stage Germany and is an advisory on smartphones and tablet educational uses for the Institut Francais pour l'Education (IFE) at the Ecole Nationale Superieure of Lyon.

Cecilia Stari (Advisor)

Montevideo, Uruguay

Cecilia Stari is professor of Physics at the Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de la República (Uruguay). She  completed her PhD  at Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil, in 2009. Her research interest focus on  superconductivity and physics education research. She is working specifically in active methodologies in university courses and also with physics teaching at primary school. Cecilia is a member of SmarterPhysics.

Please reload

bottom of page