In Japan, research activities by junior and senior high school students show an upward trend. However, there are limited examples of research activities in the field of elementary particles and atoms. This is due to the difficulty associated with procuring research tools such as accelerators or particle detectors. Therefore, we hosted the 'Accel…

A quasi-experimental group comparison experiment was conducted to improve the conceptual learning of rotational kinematics by 11th grade students of a technically-oriented high school in Argentina. The experimental instruction complemented the original Tutorials in Introductory Physics activities with the PhET simulation Ladybug Revolution.…

This research studied the effectiveness of the simulation-based learning assisted with scaffolding approach to address students' misconceptions (MCs) about projectile motion. The five MCs were related to the direction of the force acting on an object (MC1), the acceleration of an object at the top of the trajectory (MC2), the directions of…

This article investigates the optics conceptions of 228 Thai high school students in grades 10-12 when they attempted to explain how an object can be seen both in general and in a completely dark room. To elicit students' conceptions precisely, their confidence in giving reasons for the final two diagnostic questions is also considered. The study…

Enhancing the problem-solving skills of learners belonging to socio-economically disadvantaged groups is a great concern in general and particularly in the Indian context. Problem-solving skills are the most important skills of the 21st century for all learners to acquire necessary competencies. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the…

The present paper examines whether there exists a change in the concentration of carbon dioxide that is trapped in the surgical facemask during the procedure of respiration and whether the results of the sequestered CO[subscript 2] can have harmful effects on the human organism. In order to answer the research questions, an experiment has been…

This article presents a simple, fast, and equally accurate technique for measuring the area of a circle and of an ellipse without using geometric formulas. This therefore, together with the known radius of the circle and the semi-major and semi-minor axes of the ellipse, allows for the calculation of [pi]. The experiment is easy, thrilling, and…

Several properties of Earth's magnetic field (field vectors, time dependence) are measured in various locations using a smartphone/tablet magnetic sensor. To enable a proper use of the magnetic sensor as a classroom tool, the exact location of the sensor in the device and its resolution must be identified in a first step. Then, students may…

The planet Mercury transited the face of the Sun in a rare spectacle on 11 November 2019. It was an awe-inspiring moment for 300 students from Kwabenya Community High School and Ghana Atomic Energy Commission Basic School in Ghana to see this wonder of the cosmos. Celestron Power Seeker 60 mm diameter telescopes were used to project the Sun's…

This study aims to determine Turkish high school students' misconceptions about the electric charge imbalance by using a four-tier misconception test, where the main questions are accompanied by a question about the reason for the answer, as well as student declarations about their degrees of certainty. A four-tier electric charge imbalance…

Teaching and learning quantum mechanics is one of the most demanding educational and conceptual challenges, in particular in secondary schools where students do not possess an adequate mathematical background to effectively support the description of quantum behaviour. Educational research shows that traditional approaches, generally based on…

This paper presents the case for how students can be helped to increase their scientific vocation by experimental work and the introduction of particle physics into pre-university studies. These two ideas are the two main lines of work of the ADMIRA initiative, which has been created by individuals belonging to different and complementary…

In this paper we present a simple dimensional analysis exercise that allows us to derive the equation for the Hawking temperature of a black hole. The exercise is intended for high school students, and it is developed from a chapter of Stephen Hawking's bestseller "A Brief History of Time."

Fermat's principle states that a light ray refracted across different media will traverse the fastest path as the physics for Snell's law. A geometric proof of Fermat's principle will be demonstrated as an intuitive approach to learn high school geometry and physical optics. It will be proved explicitly by showing that all alternative paths need…

An ordinary soap bubble immersed in a pure carbon-dioxide atmosphere, created e.g. by sublimating chunks of dry ice (solid CO[subscript 2]), will expand within a few minutes to a volume exceeding the original one with a factor of almost ten. Considering that the bubble simultaneously experiences a cooling of ~30 ?C one would perhaps expect a tiny…