Mr. Frisch had a firm belief in Piaget's learning theory so his approach had students question real-life situations, develop understanding of the underlying concepts, and then apply this knowledge to other situations. Most units began by exposing students to common everyday activities using demonstrations, quick labs, and/or web walks. For instance, in Unit 5: Work, Energy & Power, he started his first lesson with a series of demonstrations and discussions to get students thinking about the amount of work done when a force acts through a distance. Demonstrations included holding a chair at arm's length and rolling a ball across the desk. Based on their observations, the students completed data tables which noted measures of angles, force, distance, and other relevant factors. This process served to "disequilibrate" the students so they would be intrigued and motivated to proceed with the unit.

Following disequilibration, Mr. Frisch led his students through a web walk which provided carefully selected links on the internet that were related to the current topic. For this unit, the teacher led them to The Physics Classroom and the Multimedia Physics Studio with detailed instructions on where to go and what to expect. With the web walk, the teacher posed thoughtful questions to assist his students in creating their own hypotheses. Students were required to post their thoughts on the electronic discussion board in WebCT. These discussions were threaded with the topic number, e.g. 5.1.1 and 5.1.2. Based on the students' responses, the teacher directed individual questions to students to further facilitate reflection. Students were also encouraged to respond to each other's comments in a reflective and constructive manner by indicating agreement or disagreement plus their reasons.

Web walks and quick labs were often followed by some form of more detailed hands-on lab. The range of labs in the course included experiments that students conducted themselves, virtual labs using Riverdeep software, and/or other simulations online. Their results would then be shared in the electronic discussion board in WebCT to enable classmates to compare their results and monitoring by Mr. Frisch. For the first lesson on Unit 5: Work, Energy & Power, students conducted experiments to see how much power could be produced by various parts of the human body. Students were required to note their observations in tables provided in WebCT, share their results in WebCT discussions, and compare their results with others.

Additional activities related to real life situations were included to ensure that students applied and related their new learned knowledge to life. For this unit, the teacher included a virtual lab on roller coasters. In this lab, the students were first introduced to how roller coasters work on the web at HowStuffWorks. Then they learned about how roller coasters are designed and the factors that need to be considered at the Amusement Parks Physics page from Learner.org web site. Finally, students conducted their own virtual lab at The Virginia Instructors of Physics Online Roller Coaster Lab site where they had to observe the speed of the roller coaster and length of the train. Students then calculated the height differences and presented their results in a Power Point in both WebCT and over the ICN. In other units, the virtual labs are simulations accessed through Riverdeep and saved to electronic portfolios within Riverdeep.

The teacher uses two main technologies to teach the course depending on the purpose and the nature of the activity. The Iowa Communications Network is a two-way interactive video system with studio classrooms in all Iowa school districts and most high schools in Iowa. Students gather in their respective ICN rooms at their high schools and the teacher joins them from the originating ICN site at his work location at Iowa Public Television (IPTV) or the nearby Johnston High School (his former school). Mr. Frisch values ICN for visual contact, using it for live demonstrations, synchronous class discussions, and student presentations. His students are also encouraged to meet with him over ICN during his virtual office hours or schedule an appointment if they have questions or concerns. Parent-teacher conferences are also conducted over the ICN, which helped parents to get a better sense of how the course is taught.

The second main technology that the teacher uses to manage his virtual classroom is an online course management software called WebCT. In this virtual environment, the teacher organizes the course with links to 16 units of content, quizzes and tests, discussions, assignments and other aspects. The units are progressively covered over 16 weeks, one unit per week (8 units in Semester 1 and 5 units in Semester 2). Students log in to the virtual classroom with their assigned username and password over the Internet. These lessons and activities are guided by detailed instructions from the teacher, and questions are posed to facilitate the students' thinking process. Students also use the virtual classroom to share their findings and observations. In WebCT, students often post their thoughts and findings on the electronic bulletin board. Power Point presentations and other files are attached and shared in this area.

The teacher uses WebCT to monitor students' participation and discussions, as well as their grades. Additionally, he communicates with his students both privately through email and publically on the electronic bulletin board. In addition, the teacher also uses the chat room in WebCT to review quizzes and tests. Quizzes and tests are also uploaded in the virtual classroom. The teacher enlists the help of study coaches at the students' high school to proctor the quizzes and tests with a password limiting access known by the coach but not the students.

Mr. Frisch recognizes that an important component of the course is the building of community. To develop the sense of community in the online environment, the teacher encourages his students to create and develop their personal homepages in WebCT to share information about themselves. Extra credit points are given for this task. He encourages students to share their thoughts and findings on the electronic bulletin board, and to comment on each other's results. To reduce the feeling of distance, particularly between the teacher and the students, the teacher occasionally alternates his originating ICN site by traveling to the students' high school to conduct labs. When he is at one high school, he guides the students who demonstrate over the ICN so students at the other school can see their classmates doing physics. The ICN room with the demonstration becomes the originating site.