Eleven high school students participated in a one-week STEM summer camp focused on designing and building parachutes to deliver fragile objects safely. Using the Engineering Design Process (EDP) as a framework, students explored how canopy size affects performance. They applied physics concepts such as terminal velocity, forces, and acceleration,…

In the secondary and high school science program implemented in Turkey in 2018, the importance of engineering and design skills is underlined under domain-specific skills. The purpose of this study, in which case study method, one of the qualitative research methods, is used to examine the engineering design skills of high school students within…

Informal physics programs bring physicists together with youth and adults from local communities to engage with physics content outside of classroom settings. These public engagement or "physics outreach" programs are a significant endeavor of the physics community; however, we lack a systemic documentation of these efforts, which makes…

The Teacher Academy in the Natural Sciences (TANS) provided middle school (U.S. Grades 6-8) teachers (N = 81) with intensive professional development (PD) in chemistry, geosciences, and physics, with teachers enrolled in one scientific discipline per year. Because some teachers were retained and rotated into different disciplines, the TANS program…

The current research is to give an example to the inquiry-based science teaching implementations for facilitating knowledge acquisition and retention in a short period of time. Thus, the aim of the research is to transfer of acquired knowledge into different situations using sequential inquiry activities, which have challenging questions for…

In this article we approach the problem of identification and recognition of argumentation by teacher educators of a physics undergraduate course of a large university in the southeast of Brazil. Our proposed markers criteria, such as "opposing" of ideas and "reciprocal justifications" were partially validated by the…

Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students often participate in programs being evaluated, yet they are generally excluded from being involved in the evaluation process. In addition, the staff of organizations that conduct evaluations are predominately White and often implement research methods that may perpetuate racial biases and unequal power…

Recent and exciting discoveries in astronomy and cosmology have inspired many high school students to learn about these fields. A particularly fascinating consequence of general relativity at the forefront of modern cosmology research is gravitational lensing, the bending of light rays that pass near massive objects. Gravitational lensing enables…

This case study aims to verify the benefits of theme-based project learning for convergent science experiments. The study explores the possibilities of enhancing creative, integrated and collaborative teaching and learning abilities in science-gifted education. A convergent project-based science experiment program of physics, chemistry and biology…

Describes and examines the effects of the eight-week Summer Science Training Program at the University of Iowa. There was no significant differences between students who had completed high school physics and those who had not on the final course examination, course grade, and attitudes toward physics. (Author/YP)

Presents and discusses results of a questionnaire survey of college/polytechnic students (N=213) on their perceptions of and motivation for embarking on a combined-degree physics program. Areas/topics addressed include course structures of responding colleges/students, entrance requirements, student background, reasons behind choice of first year…

Presents a report produced by the National Academy of Sciences in 1979 for the Congress on recent and prospective developments in physical science. This article summarizes those sections of the report of interest to physicists on structure of matter. (HM)

This document is designed to provide practical information for teaching the Physics 20-30 Program of Studies. The first section provides an overview of Physics 20, explaining the program philosophy and the selection and sequencing of topics. The use of concept connections and teaching a course around the science themes are described, as well as…

Students (n=128) enrolled in 8 summer intensive physics courses for academically gifted students participated in a study to assess the effectiveness of such courses compared to ordinary year-long high school physics courses. Average gains achieved by students were comparable to those achieved by students in the ordinary-length courses. (Contains…

Evaluated is a course for twelfth graders to demonstrate a variety of aspects of applied science. The basic structure and content of the course are described. The evaluation results including achievement, interest/difficulty with other courses, lateral transfer, and attitudes are reported. Examples of problems and application questionnaire are…