Who we are
STEPP began as a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project under the STEM + Computing program in 2017. Created to support the teaching of introductory physics in high school classrooms, STEPP infuses computational thinking into the learning of physics. Three carefully scaffolded modules on 1-D motion, 2-D motion, and Newton’s Laws of Motion allow students and teachers to animate word problems in existing curricula into solvable steps with high-quality customizable graphics, scaffolded inputs, dynamic motion and graphing, and much more! STEPP is publicly available and runs free thorough a web browser at STEPP.utdallas.edu.
STEPP was created by a multidisciplinary team of faculty and students from the Department of Science/Mathematics Education, Department of Physics, the Department of Computer Science, ATEC (now part of the School of Arts, Humanities and Technology) along with high school teacher-researchers.
What we're fundraising for
Help keep STEPP available and free-to-use for everyone, especially K–12 teachers and students! Our NSF grant has ended. Your donation can help the Department of Science/Mathematics Education continue to support the cost of maintaining public access to STEPP. While we’re applying for new funds to expand STEPP even further, our goal is to keep our first three STEPP modules available and free to use! With a $25 donation, you can sponsor as much as a full month of STEPP access for public schools. The STEPP team also continues to spread the word about this amazing resource through teacher workshops at national, state, and local teacher conferences.
Our Impact
STEPP is designed to be interactive, engaging, and flexible to fit within existing introductory physics curricula. A low entry threshold means no programming experience is required to use STEPP. Accessibility is also an important part of our design philosophy. By running in a browser with minimal local computing resource requirements (it works on Chromebooks!), STEPP isn’t limited to those who can afford to use it.
One of the most powerful parts of STEPP is its dynamic, color-coded graphing, in real time simultaneous with the motion simulation.
“The graphs are so amazingly helpful. Graphs are always the things my kids struggle the most with, and this has been a fantastic tool to help them!” – Rachel Hagedorn (MAT, ‘13), Physics Teacher at Newman Smith High School, Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District
