Since the vibration of a single pendulum is very periodic, measuring its period is a very interesting topic. When students are asked to measure the period of a single vibration, they start and stop the stopwatch when the pendulum reaches the top point as a reference point. In this paper, we try to show that the error can be reduced more by using…

A common procedure when conducting physics experiments is to repeat a measurement several times to calculate the mean and standard deviation. That might be the only instruction we give to students as a means to minimize random errors. However, that technique does not guarantee that the answer will be correct. It might give the same wrong answer…

Flame Emission Spectroscopy (FES) is a powerful analytical technique widely used for identifying and quantifying elements in various samples. In this laboratory experiment, undergraduate students were introduced to FES and its significance in analytical chemistry. The experiment aimed to provide students with hands-on experience in constructing…

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…

Standard glass pH electrodes are ubiquitous instruments used in research and in classrooms to measure the hydrogen ions present in a solution. While many chemists and educators have communicated ways to support teaching conceptual understanding of solution pH and the function of pH probes and dyes, the community lacks a methodology that enables…

When the relationship between two physical variables, such as voltage and current, can be expressed as y = bx where b is a constant. b may be estimated by least squares, or by averaging the values of b obtained for each x-y data pair. We show for data gathered in an experiment, as well as through Monte Carlo simulation and mathematical analysis,…

In undergraduate research settings, students are likely to encounter anomalous data, that is, data that do not meet their expectations. Most of the research that directly or indirectly captures the role of anomalous data in research settings uses post-hoc reflective interviews or surveys. These data collection approaches focus on recall of past…

In this work, we have developed an alternative device composed by an Arduino board and an INA219 sensor to experimentally obtain the mathematical formulas describing the charge and discharge of the capacitor for educational proposes. We have obtained excellent agreement between theoretical prediction and experimental measurements. The INA219 DC…

We described and ran a lesson plan for a build-your-own visible-range spectrophotometer undergraduate project as inspired by the research of Bougot-Robin, Imperial College London. Students were required to improve a basic Raspberry Pi spectrophotometer design and evaluate their improvements. Students learned firsthand how to manage instrumental…

The main thesis of the present study is to use the Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) methodology of establishing approximate measurement invariance (A-MI) using data from a national examination in Saudi Arabia as an alternative to not meeting strong invariance criteria. Instead, we illustrate how to account for the absence of…

A simple mistake in properly setting up a measuring device caused millions of dollars to be spent in correcting the initial optical failure of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This short article is intended as a lesson for a physics laboratory and discussion of errors in measurement.

Recent evidence points to the early elementary grades as a pivotal point for the development of science learning trajectories and achievement gaps. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, this study estimates the degree to which time spent on science and the breadth of science topics/skills covered predict science achievement in…

A low-cost and simple setup to measure the densities of liquids is introduced herein. The results and reliability of this setup were evaluated for pure liquids, water-ethanol binary mixtures, and aqueous NaCl solutions. The constructed densitometer provided density values with acceptable relative errors (less than ±3.0%), which were compared to…

Adoption of new instructional standards in science demands high-quality information about classroom practice. Teacher portfolios can be used to assess instructional practice and support teacher self-reflection anchored in authentic evidence from classrooms. This study investigated a new type of electronic portfolio tool that allows efficient…

In longitudinal studies, measurement invariance is required to conduct substantive comparisons over time or across groups. In this study, we examined measurement invariance on a recently developed instrument capturing student preferences for seven instructional strategies related to science learning and career interest. We have labeled these seven…