Experimental activity in the physics teaching can be considered as a space in which teachers create contexts for students to approach the way scientific knowledge is constructed. In this sense, the strategies for the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the context of science education, has a wide potential to guide…

Most, if not all, physics undergraduate degree programs include instructional lab experiences. Physics lab instructors, both faculty and staff, are instrumental to student learning in instructional physics labs. However, the faculty-staff dichotomy belies the complex, varied, and multifaceted landscape of positions that lab instructors hold in the…

In engineering, kinematics is widely regarded as a fundamental topic with the literature agreeing that students possess a wide range in understanding of the topic. This study aims to take a second-order approach by understanding and exploring the qualitatively different ways in which students approach solving kinematics problems. Phenomenography…

A creative apparatus for use in a hands-on laboratory experiment that allows the visualization of the vapor pressure as a function of temperature is described in this paper. Inspired by homemade barometers and using simple materials that are easily accessible for teaching laboratories, a lowcost system for the establishment of the vapor-pressure…

We discuss how compressed images created by modern digital cameras can lead to even severe problems in the quantitative analysis of experiments based on such images. Difficulties result from the nonlinear treatment of lighting intensity values stored in compressed files. To overcome such troubles, one has to adopt noncompressed, native formats, as…

Physics teachers use experimental devices to show students how scientific concepts, principles, and laws are applied to understand the real world. This paper studies question generation of secondary and under-graduate university students when they are confronted with experimental devices in different but usual teaching situations: reading about…

The purpose of the present study was to examine how the use of V-diagrams one of the learning techniques used in laboratory studies in experiments conducted regarding the 10th grade lesson unit of "waves" influenced students' achievements. In the study, a quasi-experimental design with a pretest and posttest control group was used. The…

Introduces programs that assist blind students such as Tactile Access to Education for Visually Impaired Students (TAEVIS). Reports on two blind students who successfully completed physics courses and their learning strategies. Discusses the accessibility of visual aids. (YDS)

Discusses the laboratory portion of a beginning noncalculus physics course that uses concrete examples of abstract concepts. Describes the use of coffee cans to explain oscillations and plastic darts to illustrate collisions. (MLH)