In science, one of the most crucial representations for constructing meaning about physical events is graphs. The first graph students encounter in science class is the constant velocity motion graph. Therefore, examining students' understanding of structuring and interpreting these graphs for the relationship between distance, time, and velocity…

When learning physics, students need more than just an understanding of mathematical and physical concepts. Integrating the two fields is crucial, as research indicates that students often struggle even when they have a strong grasp of both. In this paper, we use the heat equation as an example from higher education. Given the importance of the…

Student difficulties with making sense of graphs in physics have been thoroughly reported. In the study of one-dimensional waves, the issue is even trickier since the amplitude is a function of two variables (position and time). In this work, we investigate students' reasoning and difficulties with interpreting the graphical representation of the…

It's not surprising that rainbows have received a great deal of attention: in textbooks, in magazines, and on the web. They are, after all, beautiful, fascinating, occasionally awe-inspiring, even a little mysterious. They are an almost perfect blend of natural beauty and simple physics. Has everything that can be said about rainbows already been…

Introductory physics students often express fears regarding graphical vector addition. To ameliorate student trepidation of possibly making a mistake when moving the second vector to its new position at the head of the first vector before being added, as is most often advised by physics teachers, an alternative method is detailed here. This subtly…

A significant goal when teaching at the secondary education level is to present the generality of the procedures that are being used to describe a wide range of different physical phenomena. However, this approach is abandoned by physics instructors in many cases since the general mathematical background needed to present the above generality is…

Representation in science is anything that stands for something else--drawings, pictures, graphs, or other representational forms (Danish et al. 2020). Representations serve as public displays of phenomena that make aspects of those phenomena explicit (Gilbert 2008). They can serve to make the invisible visible, communicate ideas, display…

Student understanding regarding topics in upper-division courses, such as biochemistry, is not well represented in the literature. Herein we describe a study that investigated students' reasoning about Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics and enzyme inhibition. Our qualitative study involved semistructured interviews with fourteen second-year students…

Research has identified several students' misinterpretations of the principles of the photoelectric effect (PE). Students cannot interpret the formula using the graph's context despite the linear dependence inherited in it. Many studies pointed out that the graphical representation of kinetic energy of the ejected electrons versus frequency of…

The drag effect on a falling ball caused by air is a conventional subject in the most well-known textbooks of classical mechanics and fluid dynamics. Further, there are some papers that employ video analysis to track objects movements in the air making it possible to obtain position data as a function of time and its graphs. However, none of them…

This article describes the implementation of an activity with a Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) learning cycle to teach the concepts of velocity and acceleration to physics students aged 17-19. The study indicates how the instructor enacted the activity and provides sample student responses and group discussions. The description includes an example…

The lesson presented here provides a multifaceted inquiry-based opportunity to develop a deep grasp of Archimedes' principle. It was originally developed for high school teachers as part of their training in the basic structure of the Next Generation Science Standards. There are numerous demonstrations illustrating Archimedes' principle, many of…

Using multiple representations (MR) such as graphs, symbols, diagrams, and text, is central to teaching and learning in physics classrooms. While different studies have provided evidence of the positive impact of the use of MR on physics learning, a comprehensive overview of existing literature on the use of MR in physics education, especially at…

Studies on student learning of scientific concepts have shown that students often experience various difficulties in understanding basic physics concepts such as vector quantities, as a result of formal and informal learning. The purpose of the present study is to document Grade 11 students' difficulties in understanding vectors and their…

Explanations of phenomena in chemistry are grounded in discussions of particulate-level behavior, but there are limitations to focusing on single particles, or as an extension, viewing a group of particles as displaying uniform behavior. More sophisticated models of physical processes evoke considerations related to the dynamic nature of bulk…