STEM
Mathematics
Science
Last updated: December 5, 2025
Advance toward a world where science and math are inclusive, enjoyable, and empowering.
Widely adopted in 195 countries
87 languages
Target audience: Educators and teachers
Category: Learning activities, Learning content, Tool for teachers, Interactive simulations
Grade: Early Childhood, Primary, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary, Technical and Vocational, Tertiary
Full offline functionality
The information presented is provided by the company, and reviewed in good faith. Learning Cabinet is not responsible for inaccurate content.
How this product was evaluated?
PhET uses multimodal interactivity, discipline-based education research, inclusive design, and extensive student interviews throughout the development process to ensure students achieve the intended objectives. Impact has been measured across 13,000+ global independent studies on student conceptual understanding, skills, attitudes toward STEM, and engagement. Refer to PhET's research page: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/research
PhET Interactive Simulations shows a proven positive impact, backed by at least one experimental study that shows a statistically significant positive impact on the intended learning outcomes.
Different levels of research evidence indicate the reliability of the proof of positive impact. The tools featured in the Learning Cabinet range from:
PhET Founder & Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman was awarded the Yidan Prize in 2020--a global prize recognizing the strength of research on the use of PhET interactive simulations.
A literature review by Banda and Nzabanimana (2021) of 31 quasi-experimental studies (100% with PhET) showed learning gains 37% greater than control.
Implicit scaffolding embeds guidance directly into interactive simulations through affordances, constraints, cues, and feedback, improving conceptual learning while preserving student agency and self-directed exploration.
Recommended use
PhET simulations are available for early learners through university education. Simulations are akin to virtual laboratory spaces (in science) or digital manipulatives (for math), and are most effective for exploration and laboratory experiences. Duration and frequency are very variable.
PhET simulations are available for early learners through university education. Simulations are akin to virtual laboratory spaces (in science) or digital manipulatives (for math), and are most effective for exploration and laboratory experiences. Duration and frequency are very variable.
Target audience
Advance toward a world where science and math are inclusive, enjoyable, and empowering.
We create simulations where there is a gap in high-quality digital tools for math and science topics, while also considering teachers' expressed needs and the requests of our donors who support the creation and maintenance of simulations. We consider the widely-accepted domain of math and science knowledge more than any particular curriculum. However, we provide alignment guidelines for the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards, U.S. Common Core State Standards, and any curricular documents that users might contribute to our website.
PhET simulations are developed using design principles that incorporate discipline-based education research (known learning difficulties in math and science) and inclusive design. Refer to "A Study of Educational Simulations Part 1 - Engagement and Learning" uploaded in a prior section of this application. https://www.learntechlib.org/noaccess/24230/
The design of PhET simulations is based on hundreds of interviews to iteratively refine our user interface approaches and scaffolding. Each individual PhET simulation is tested through at least 4-8 student interviews. We also make efforts toward compliance in design and functionality to make simulations compatible with voicing (for users without screen readers) and interactive description (for visually-impaired users with screen readers).
As PhET does not collect PII on users, we cannot track specific instances of use. However, we have more than two decades of experience interviewing students around the world as we have designed simulations. We have extensive interactions with teachers as well, who regularly provide feedback about desired changes through our many public channels (e.g., PhET Help Desk, teacher workshops, social media, etc.). A large portion of our team includes prior (and current) math and science educators, who regularly use PhET simulations with their students.
PhET designs simulations for use globally. However, many simulations have localization features that include "cultural sets", such as characters wearing locally-relevant clothing.
Free: Access to PhET's core simulations and teacher resources are completely free. PhET's teacher professional development is available for free on Coursera (when auditing).
Premium: PhET Studio (customization tool) is available for an annual license (currently $50/yr), only available for educators/institutions with a U.S. credit card, although global international agreements may someday be possible through institutional agreements.
Partnership: EdTech companies that desire licensing of PhET branding, access to our API service (metadata, software updates, etc.), and technical or pedagogical support, can enter into a partnership agreement for a fee.
Our mobile PhET Apps, available on Apple App Store and Google Play, use context-dependent pricing. Additionally, while PhET Studio is not currently available outside of the U.S., we expect to someday have a tiered pricing model. Partnership pricing also varies, with discounted commercial partnerships available for companies based in developing countries.
PhET routinely manages multimillion dollar grants and large service agreements. Our funders/collaborators have included The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Yidan Prize Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, Verizon, Mastercard Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Google.org, The O'Donnell Foundation, and other donors and supporters. Refer to https://phet.colorado.edu/en/our-supporters
These projects have included large-scale technology projects (development of new simulations, creation of infrastructure) and educational development projects (e.g., PhET Fellowships in Africa and Latin America, reaching 124K+ teachers).
PhET Interactive Simulations does not fulfil the WCAG 2.1 level AA requirementsAutomatic toolsExpert validation (using free NVDA screen reader)Person with disabilityAlthough we are not able to directly measure usage by gender, we promote evidence-based although we promote evidence-based gender-sensitive strategies (and have observed increased use of those strategies) in the communities that we impact.
Evaluated using the Learning Cabinet’s rigorous EdTech for Good Framework to ensure safety, learning impact, scalability, and inclusion for all learners.
PhET Interactive Simulations provides 170+ open access and inclusive interactive STEM simulations, available in 120+ languages, fully downloadable for offline use, and used 250M times annually around the world.
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