Science does not belong to just one civilization, one culture, one country, or one gender; it belongs to all who want to unfold the mysteries of nature. Most scientists agree that science currently is, and indeed always has been, international and multicultural in character. Our teaching at all levels should reflect this multiculturalism as part…

In introductory electric circuits in middle school, students often carry strongly held alternative conceptions. Common to many of these is an idea of electric current as some kind of substance that originates from the battery and moves toward electronic components. Learners often argue that current influences those one by one as they are…

It is often challenging for physics instructors to dedicate time during a course to engage students in developing strategic approaches to learning in addition to problem-solving skills and content knowledge. In this work, we introduce a simple modification to our teaching practice with the purpose of fostering student development of self-regulated…

Quantum computing is a growing field at the intersection of physics and computer science. The goal of this article is to highlight a successfully trialled quantum computing course for high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 years old. This course was designed to bridge the gap between popular science articles and advanced undergraduate…

We describe here a low-cost experiment for introductory physics students where they compare the physical properties of aluminum and steel by means of cantilever oscillations. This, in turn, allows the students to improve their physical intuition about these materials. Further, the students can apply their physics and mathematics knowledge and…

Resistor--capacitor (RC) circuit labs help students, but most courses don't include them because of complications and cost. This work presents an easy and inexpensive Arduino-based lab on the charge and energy transfer between two capacitors with different values of the initial electric charge when they are connected through a resistor. Capacitors…

Perhaps the most commonly cited student idea about forces in the literature is the notion of an impetus force, defined as the "belief that there is a force inside a moving object that keeps it going and causes it to have some speed," that can then "fade away as the object moves along." According to the literature, even after…

To a student in introductory physics, using vectors is at best an exercise in bookkeeping. A two-dimensional kinematics problem effectively doubles the number of equations that a student must know, and invites the student to memorize factoids: "The horizontal motion is constant," "Gravity is only in the y-direction," etc. Force…

Apparatus catalogues of the first half of the 20th century contain a number of clever and simple devices for measuring the index of refraction of a liquid. In some cases students can put together one of these pieces of apparatus and then make their own measurements. The Gilley board was one of the devices that caught my eye, and I would like to…

Archimedes' principle has been and still is a complicated concept to understand by introductory students, especially as typically stated in physics textbooks. Take for example its statement by Bierman: "When a body is fully or partially submerged in a fluid, a buoyant force from the surrounding fluid acts on the body. The force is directed…

Are you frustrated when students focus on "getting the right answer" without understanding why the physics works that way, or even why their own brains came to that conclusion? If so, this might be less about the student and more about the pedagogy--you might be stuck on the "One True Path," a way of thinking "that assumes…

Electromagnetism (E&M) is often challenging for students enrolled in introductory college-level physics courses. Compared to mechanics, the mathematics of E&M is more sophisticated and the representations are more abstract. Furthermore, students may lack productive intuitions they had with force and motion. In this article, we explore the…

Semiconductor devices, usually made from silicon wafers, are present in the electronic gadgets that we use on a daily basis. In an introductory physics class, the textbook usually devotes a few pages to these devices and moves on. As a result, students may readily forget the material or fail to see how it relates to their lives. A solution is to…

While laboratories have long been associated with introductory physics courses, there is doubt as to whether they positively impact student learning. Holmes and Wieman found that students who elected to take optional laboratories fared no better across a range of metrics than their counterparts who did not participate. In addition, these…

The Poisson distribution describes the probability of a certain number of events occurring in an interval of time when the occurrence of the individual events is independent of one another and the events occur with a fixed mean rate. Probably the best-known example of the Poisson distribution in the physics curriculum is the temporal distribution…