In the high school context, many students only solve photoelectric effect phenomena based on the equation for maximum kinetic energy and its relationship to work functions. While the story behind this phenomenon constitutes an exciting educational experience if conveyed in an attractive visual manner, many physics teachers are concerned that…

Communication of difficult concepts in the physics classroom can be negatively affected by the absence of a strong link between physics content and the experiences or interests of students. One possible method towards addressing this issue is to motivate physics content with reference to popular culture figures such as superheroes. We find…

Successfully carrying out a secondary school physics inquiry requires a considerable amount of procedural and content knowledge. It further requires knowledge of how and why maintaining scientific standards produces the best available answer to the given research question. To this purpose, a series of five inquiry activities was developed and…

The famous motto of the Lucky Luke comics series and its accompanying drawing are analyzed from a physicist's viewpoint. They provide useful pedagogical tools to discuss such aspects of relativity as causality, the equivalence principle, gravitational blue shift, and the tachyonic antitelephone. [This article was first published in Hungarian in…

An achievement evaluation of a non-conventional physics course for liberal arts students is presented. The theoretical ground for this course focuses on the use of humour as a teaching tool. Preliminary evidence shows that a learning process is accomplished. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Presents the first results of a working proposal aimed at coupling physics teaching with viewing cartoon programs. Involves the individualized analysis of two cartoon programs by teachers and students with a focus on discriminating between 'real' and 'impossible' situations, a class discussion of the results, and an attempt to give a physical…

If we want to integrate science into society as part of modern culture, we should first ensure that we know about the image that its citizens hold, starting with the students themselves. One of the aims of this could be to increase the number of students studying physics when at present they appear to be in decline. In this paper, we analyse the…

Reviews the use of concept cartoons in support of the constructivist view of learning, and gives two particular examples to show how they can help students' understanding of the formation of shadows. (Author/MM)

Explains how cartoons are used to promote public understanding of science. Argues that cartoons have proven popular and can be usefully applied in the classroom where improved motivation is one of the benefits. (Author/DDR)

Some common themes of cartoons that use science as a subject are identified. Cartoons that deal with the topics of theory, the universe, school, the relationship between science and technology, and the nature of science are included. The sociology of scientific humor is discussed. (KR)