Our Journey to Reviving Physics Java Applets

COVID-19 posed various economic, health, social, and academic challenges but created unique opportunities for some academic projects that might otherwise not have been pursued. In the context of this study, the shift to remote teaching due to COVID-19 enhanced the importance of computer simulations in learning physics, providing a catalyst for reviving a collection of high-quality Java applets of physics simulations at the first/second-year level that had become obsolete due to security concerns and the associated changes in the internet and browser landscape since their creation around the early 2000s by Alberta physicists.

COVID-19 limited the work-term opportunities for our computer information systems students in the industry. Serendipitously, the availability of some of these students for this project was also a significant factor in realizing this project.

In this presentation, we will share our journey of bringing these applets back to life using browser-dependent, browser-independent, and internet-independent approaches. The revival of these applets holds great promise for the future of physics education as it preserves the collective expertise and experience of many physicists.