Experiments involving RC circuits are an integral part of introductory physics courses. Previous articles using RC circuits describe determining the charge on a Van de Graaff generator, measuring currents and voltages in a charging RC circuit using a multimeter or an Arduino, measuring the decay constants of complex RC circuits, and using the…

This work provides a missing manual needed to understand permanent magnets (also known as "hard" magnets), the only source of "magnetic induction field B" (units of teslas), often called the magnetic field, that students are familiar with when they confront magnetic force acting on moving charges. Students see this magnetic…

Students experience current electricity every day in our wired world, yet the circuit problems that students work through in physics class can seem far removed from the common experience of switching on a light bulb. However, current electricity provides many opportunities to engage students in hands-on learning. Through circuit construction,…

Literature on student ideas about circuits largely focuses on misunderstandings and difficulties, with seminal papers framing student thinking as stable, difficult to change, and connected to incorrect ontological categorizations of current as a thing rather than a process. In this paper, we analyzed 417 student responses to a conceptual question…

This study investigates the influence of computer-based simulations on students' academic achievement and attitudes toward learning Direct Current (DC) circuits in physics. A quasi-experimental design was employed, involving 40 secondary school students divided into an experimental group (20 students) and a control group (20 students). The…

Nowadays, physics learning in the classroom should no longer only focus on achieving academics. It must prepare students to face challenges in the future. One of the abilities that are important for learners is problem solving, and the problem-solving ability that is becoming increasingly important in today's digital era is computational thinking…

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…

Circuit simulation, together with practical sessions, is considered a fundamental tool to assist in the teaching of electronics. Robotics offers rich real-world applications that foster student interest in developing engineering projects. Despite the potential benefits of uniting these two realities, software tools that combine circuits and…

The Widlar current source is one of the basic current sources that undergraduate students encounter throughout their learning process on electronics courses. The Widlar current is actually given in terms of a transcendental equation. Although an analytical solution exists in terms of the Lambert W function it might not be that useful for students…

Vector cross product transformations are essential components in general physics. The numerous mnemonic devices catered towards each potential transformation result in confusion, defeating their purpose of reducing learning barriers. Therefore, a general mnemonic device, subject-environment interaction or the subject, is proposed to help students…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the knowledge of prospective physics teachers on capacitors and electric field lines. Sample: The study group consists of 45 prospective physics teachers, 31 of whom are female, 14 of whom are male, studying at a state University in Turkey. Design and methods: A descriptive model was selected as the…

Physics Education Research has a rich history of identifying common student ideas about specific physics topics. In the context of electric circuits, existing research on students' ideas has primarily focused on misconceptions, misunderstandings, and difficulties. In this paper, we take a resource-oriented approach to identifying common student…

The aim of this research is to identify pre-service science teachers' experiences during the simple electrical circuit establishment process, points they were challenged with, and developed strategies they used against the challenges they were experimenting with this process. In this study, embedded single case study, which is one of the…

The Arduino microcontroller is finding its way into labs throughout undergraduate physics curricula, from introductory courses to a variety of beyond-the-first-year laboratory classes. At Davidson College, they use Arduinos in a gateway STEM course for students who are interested in energy and the environment. This article describes how students…

The experiment in charging and discharging of a capacitor through a resistor is fundamentally important for studying electronics. We have developed an alternative procedure to measure the voltage drops across capacitors as a function of time. The simple apparatus controlled by an Arduino Uno microcontroller board and LabVIEW™ interface was set up.…