A growing body of research-based instructional materials for quantum mechanics has been developed in recent years. Despite a common grounding in the research literature on student ideas about quantum mechanics, there are some major differences between the various sets of instructional materials. In this article, we examine the major instructional…

The project described here was aimed at developing and evaluating a novel curriculum with corresponding instructional materials for middle school students on an introduction to Newtonian mechanics, based on physics education research findings. A case study showed that teachers who attended a half-day workshop on the curriculum subsequently enacted…

Responsive instruction--or instruction that foregrounds and takes up the disciplinary substance of student thinking--is both a hallmark of recent STEM education reforms and challenging to enact. This kind of instruction may be especially challenging in instructional contexts that mandate or rely on curriculum with set, structured learning…

Over the past few decades, a growing body of evidence demonstrates that students learn best in engaging, interactive, collaborative, and inquiry-based environments. However, most college science classes are still taught with traditional methods suggesting the existing selection of research-based instructional materials has not widely transformed…

Technological fields, like engineering, are in desperate need of more qualified workers, yet not enough students are pursuing studies in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) that would prepare them for technical careers. Unfortunately, many students have no interest in STEM careers, particularly engineering, because they are not…

A systems approach was applied to the development of a multimedia computer managed course in college physics for the U. S. Naval Academy by the New York Institute of Technology with funds provided by the U. S. Office of Education. The experience in the construction of the program is incorporated into a course development model to serve as a…

This document describes methods for designing and building two types of rockets--rockets from paper and rockets from bottles. Devices used for measuring the heights that the rockets obtain are also discussed. (KHR)

This monograph was written for the purpose of presenting physics to college students who are not preparing for careers in physics. It deals with the nature of atoms, and treats the following topics: (1) the atomic hypothesis, (2) the chemical elements, (3) models of an atom, (4) a particle in a one-dimensional well, (5) a particle in a central…

In order to study the effectiveness of programed material in problem solving, four programed lessons were constructed and administered by audio-tape, 35mm slides, and a printed manual. The details of these programs, as well as the tests to evaluate them, are described. An outline is presented of a multi-media approach to technical physics of which…

Provides a list of 25 books in the areas of science history, physics-and-society issues, physics and politics, and the social responsibility of physics. The authors feel that the materials cited would be most useful for potential teachers of physics-and-society courses. (CP)

Summarizes Goethe's color studies and his methods of study. It is proposed that the act of accurate qualitative observation creates the capability in the observer for an intuitive understanding of the physical laws underlying the phenomena under observation. The use of such a method as a basis for laboratory instruction is discussed. (Author/CP)

Summarizes responses to a survey conducted for the purpose of assessing the potential market for improvements in instruction in technical physics courses. (CC)