The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of blended physics laboratory experimentation on pre-service physics teachers' (PSPTs') understanding of the nature of science (NOS) during an electricity and magnetism laboratory course. The study used a non-equivalent comparison group using a pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental…

A straightforward experimental set-up, requiring a two-liter bottle, a ruler and a stopwatch, is used to provide data appropriate for modelling with Torricelli's Law in the simplest case, and a more sophisticated differential equation when losses are taken into account and a pipe extension is considered. With only an exit hole included in the…

In classroom science laboratories, unlike a real science laboratory, the teacher can guide students away from potential dead ends and toward data that are most likely to result in accurate conclusions. Sometimes, though, allowing students to pursue dead ends and to collect "bad" data can provide especially rich learning opportunities.…

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is one of the basic analytical procedures in chemistry and allows the demonstration of various chemical principles in an educational setting. An often-overlooked aspect of TLC is the capability to quantify isolated target compounds in an unknown sample. Here, we present a suitable route to implement quantitative…

Proposing scientific descriptions is critical for individuals to cope with daily problems and acquire essential information. Nonetheless, few classes have enhanced students' ability to describe facts of scientific phenomena. Thus, using a tool of technology-based laboratory, this research examined whether students' scientific descriptions and…

The speed of sound in a solid is determined by the density and elasticity of the material. Young's modulus can therefore be calculated once the density and the speed of sound in the solid are measured. The density can be measured relatively easily, and the speed of sound through a rod can be measured very inexpensively by setting up a longitudinal…

A low-cost chaos dynamics lab is developed for quantitative demonstration of the butterfly effect using a magnetic pendulum. Chaotic motion is explored by recording magnetic time series. Students analyze the data in Excel® to investigate the butterfly effect as well as the reconstruction of the strange attractor using time delay plots. The lab…

Some of the results from the electrostatics portion of introductory physics are particularly difficult for students to understand and/or believe. For students who have yet to take vector calculus, Gauss's law is far from obvious and may seem more difficult than Coulomb's. When these same students are told that the minimum potential…

"The Physics Teacher's" "iPhysicsLabs" column has been dedicated to the implementation of smartphones in instructional physics labs as data collection devices. In order to understand any data set, however, one should first understand how it is obtained. This concern regarding the inclusion of smartphones in lab activities…

The International Conference on Academic Studies in Technology and Education (ICASTE) is set to take place at Amara Premier Palace Hotel in Antalya, Turkey, from November 16-19, 2023. Organized by the International Society for Research in Education and Science (ISRES) and the International Society for Academic Research in Science, Technology, and…

Microfluidics, the manipulation of fluids in channels with micron dimensions, has emerged as an exciting new field that impacts the broad area of nano/microtechnology. This is an important area to train the next generation of chemical engineers. This paper describes an experiment where students are given a problem to design a microfluidic mixer…

Oscillating chemical reactions (OCRs) have been known since 1828, with the Belousov-Zhabotinskii (BZ) reaction the most studied example. Initially, OCRs were considered to be special cases due to the small number detected and because the oscillatory behavior did not seem to agree with the second law of thermodynamics. However, OCRs have become…

In this paper we suggest a simple technique for validating the Goldstein-Wehner law for a stratified positive column of dc glow discharge while studying the properties of gas discharges in an undergraduate laboratory. To accomplish this a simple device with a pre-vacuum mechanical pump, dc source and gas pressure gauge is required. Experiments may…

The Timepix hybrid silicon pixel detector has been used to investigate the inverse square law of radiation from a point source as a demonstration of the CERN [at] school detector kit capabilities. The experiment described uses a Timepix detector to detect the gamma rays emitted by an [superscript 241]Am radioactive source at a number of different…

The aim of this paper is to determine the acceleration due to gravity "g", using a simple and low-cost experimental device. The time taken for a metallic ball to travel a predetermined distance is measured and recorded by a series of optical sensors. Four pairs of sensors are placed along the external surface of a vertical methacrylate tube at…