Although most teachers recognize the importance of taking investigative, open-ended approaches to students' learning experiences, implementing them in high school classes can be challenging for teachers. In this work, we analyzed data from multiple sources from a teaching Community of Practice (CoP) to investigate (a) barriers to taking an…

A lab activity for teaching physics students the fundamentals of statistical analysis during the first few weeks of instruction is described. This activity involves students timing a pulse of light generated by an Arduino device of fixed duration with individual timers (e.g. stopwatch, iPhone timer). To select the most precise timing methods and…

In a recent report, the American Association of Physics Teachers has developed an updated set of recommendations for curriculum of undergraduate physics labs. This document focuses on six major themes: constructing knowledge, modeling, designing experiments, developing technical and practical laboratory skills, analyzing and visualizing data, and…

The rapid compression or expansion of a gas in a plastic syringe is a poor approximation of an adiabatic process. Heat exchange with the walls of the syringe brings the gas to equilibrium in an amount of time that is not significantly greater than the length of the compression or expansion itself. Despite this limitation, it is still possible to…

The speed of sound is a physical property that can be measured easily in the lab. However, finding an inexpensive and intuitive way for students to determine this speed has been more involved. The introduction of affordable consumer-grade high-speed cameras (such as the Exilim EX-FC100) makes conceptually simple experiments feasible. Since the…

The inherent spatial complexity of the human cerebral ventricular system, coupled with its deep position within the brain, poses a problem for conceptualizing its anatomy. Cadaveric dissection, while considered the gold standard of anatomical learning, may be inadequate for learning the anatomy of the cerebral ventricular system; even with…

It is important for students to be exposed to the concept of osmotic pressure. Understanding this concept lays the foundation for deeper discussions that lead to more theoretical aspects of water movement associated with the concepts of free energy, water potential, osmotic potential, pressure potential, and osmotic adjustment. The concept of…

The present volume was compiled by the AAPT Committee on Apparatus for Educational Institutions and by the AAPT-AIP Center for Education Apparatus in Physics to assist physics departments in the never-ending task of keeping their undergraduate laboratories up to date. The purpose of the book is to put before physics teachers for their…

In a senior modern physics laboratory, design" or ingenuity" experiments were introduced to acquaint students with methods of doing complete experiments. The former deals with proposed long term studies while the latter deals with apparatus and short term actual studies. Students rated the design" experiments higher. (Author/TS)

Includes methods for demonstrating Schlieren effect, measuring refractive index, measuring acceleration, presenting concepts of optics, automatically recording weather, constructing apparaturs for sound experiments, using thermistor thermometers, using the 741 operational amplifier in analog computing, measuring inductance, electronically ringing…

Describes an introductory laboratory format (used for 12 years at Colorado College) that involves students in the design and exploration phases of experiments. The laboratory features include choices of experiments; clearly explained goals; student selection of methods; wise equipment use; check-out procedures with instructor questions; and no…