Students and Teachers Respond Enthusiastically to Kinetic Books' Digital Physics Textbook and Labs; Company Announces Plans for General Availability of Comprehensive, Affordable Products.

SEATTLE -- Teaching science to high school and college students is a challenging endeavor, especially with reduced school budgets and higher textbook costs. Today, Kinetic Books Company announced a set of comprehensive digital textbooks and a suite of virtual labs for physics classes, available for purchase in early 2005. The products result from five years of research and development, including hundreds of trials and interviews with students and educators. The curriculum features hundreds of interactive Java simulations and over a thousand animations integrated with the text.

"Computer-based textbooks allows students to explore physics fundamentals and experiments, allowing them to learn at their own pace and build a solid understanding of physics concepts," said Bruce Jacobsen, founder/CEO of Kinetic Books Company.

Physics instructors and students are responding favorably to an early version of the textbook, currently being used at several high schools and colleges throughout the United States.

Ken Tong, a physics instructor at Ballard High School in Seattle, said: "The Kinetic Books digital textbook is very comprehensive and covers all the topics of regular high school, AP and college calculus-based physics. It is extremely thorough and contains extensive links to all the physical phenomena. There are interactive problem-solving strategies and examples. For the teachers it has all the necessary resources, individualized assessments and grading system. It is what I have expected of a useful CD textbook."

College instructors are also excited with the products. "I am particularly pleased at how interested the students get in the interactive problems," said Kevin Wheelock, adjunct physics instructor at Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Wash. "They don't treat them as video games; rather, they try very hard to solve the problems. Overall, my students enjoy this textbook far more than any other textbook I've used."

The textbook offers many opportunities for self-assessment, and students' problem solving abilities are encouraged by interactive problems posed in the textbook and virtual labs. A student at a Seattle high school remarked, "In a normal textbook we wouldn't have been able to have the whiteboards or the simulations. The whiteboards make it so that people who can't learn just by reading text (like me) are also 'spoken' to. It was almost like having a mini-teacher online."

New print physics textbooks cost $100 or more, and students or districts must purchase these - or find used textbooks if and when they are available. Kinetic Books projects it will price its textbooks at $29-$59 per student depending on level, and projects it will charge $199 for 35 computers at a school facility. Final pricing will be announced when the products become available for sale.

Virtual Labs

In addition to digital physics textbooks, Kinetic Books provides a set of digital labs. Kinetic Books' computer-based, virtual labs contain simulations of physics situations that offer comprehensive coverage and reinforcement of the curriculum. Students learn projectile motion by using a multi-player cannon game or learning the physics of juggling; they learn orbital mechanics by placing a satellite in orbit around the Earth and planning a mission to Mars. The labs ask students to form hypotheses, require them to record data to validate their theories and sometimes have them derive equations.

Some of these labs can be conducted in well-equipped labs, but lab equipment is expensive, and many cover topics that cannot be covered in any traditional educational facility. In one lab, students recreate Einstein's special relativity experiments, and experiment in this lab with objects moving at near the speed of light.

Again, Kinetic Books' products are fairly priced. The company projects that its complete set of 16 labs will cost $29 per student or $199 for 35 computers at a school facility.

Jacobsen said: "Students love to experiment. Our labs cause them to form hypotheses and test their conclusions. Lab equipment is expensive. Many schools find it hard to keep current, and as education becomes more distributed, it is increasingly hard to provide equipment to students. Our products enable any instructor to complement their teaching with a well-rounded set of labs."

About Kinetic Books:

Kinetic Books Company creates digital curriculum. The Seattle-based company's first products are a set of digital physics textbooks and a set of virtual labs designed for physics students in high school and college. The people behind Kinetic Books are physics, math, education, and computer science professionals who enjoy physics, education, and contributing to the future through affordable, high-quality, digital curriculum. Experiment with Kinetic Books' physics curriculum, or find out more about the company, at www.kineticbooks.com. For those who prefer to reach the company by phone, call 206-448-1141.