This study investigates the ability of future primary school teachers to design experiments when confronted with everyday life problems, particularly those involving complex phenomena or counterintuitive outcomes. Data were collected using a content analysis approach from the written assignments submitted during a Science Education university…

One of the methods in blended learning is case-based learning, which focuses on problem-solving through analyzing real case studies. This research aims to generate creative scientific ideas through creative scientific assignments by implementing Case-Based Blended Learning supported by Digital Mind Mapping. This exploratory research examines how…

Previous research has suggested that changing the percentage of the course grade associated with exam grades in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses can change the gender gap in the course. It has also been shown that high-stakes assessments yield the lowest (relative) scores for female students. Previous research by the…

Although conceptual assessment tests are commonly administered at the beginning and end of a semester, this pre-post approach has inherent limitations. Specifically, education researchers and instructors have limited ability to observe the progression of students' conceptual understanding throughout the course. Furthermore, instructors are limited…

In measurement and evaluation processes, natural language responses are often avoided due to time, workload, and reliability concerns. However, the increasing popularity of automatic short-answer grading studies for natural language responses means such answers can now be measured more quickly and reliably. This study aims to build models for…

Background: Natural phenomenon explanation like eclipse is an important event that needs to be examined among all peers so as to ensure the scientific understanding of these natural happenings in our various environments. Purpose: This study focuses on investigating the undergraduate physics students' conception of eclipses formation using a…

A deep understanding of mechanical waves is crucial for students to succeed in studying many advanced physics topics. Studies in existing literature have revealed that students often have widespread difficulties and misconceptions on wave propagation. This research develops and applies a conceptual framework model to examine students'…

Although the phrase "seat of EMF" in describing chemical cells has fallen into disuse, by distinguishing the distinct but incorrect conceptions both of Galvani and of Volta, in favor of the correct view of Faraday, "seat of EMF" it becomes possible (among other things) to understand: (1) why internal resistance really is…

We outline the physics involved in the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and modernise the usual textbook treatment by explaining how one can now obtain high-quality images with non-conductive specimens. As a concrete example of an application in biology, we provide several magnification series of a flea obtained using SEM.

Among the student ideas about forces discussed in the literature, perhaps the most commonly reported is the notion of an impetus force, or the "belief that there is a force inside a moving object that keeps it going and causes it to have some speed." For example, Clement asked university students taking introductory mechanics to draw a…

During elementary physics courses, many examples in mechanics are studied without considering air resistance effects. We can mention, for example, projectile motion and free fall, among many others. Only brief studies of such systems in classical mechanics courses consider linear air resistance (F[subscript drag] [is proportional to] v), which is…

In this paper we explain how to build a very sensitive force table using 3D-printed parts. The key component of this apparatus is a simple sensitive pulley that, together with the other components, can be printed in one day (one hour per pulley, 17 hours for a complete three-pulleys table) at the cost of 160 g of plastic filament. This force table…

Although the old problem of rotating liquid is described and solved in many textbooks and articles, the story still remains interesting. Intuitive understanding of the equipotential spatial surfaces is very difficult. This article is an attempt to present Newton's rotating tank in the light of the law of conservation of energy.

In 1981 I published a note on "Balancers" as part of a series of illustrations drawn from 19th-century physics texts. Some months later a wonderful present arrived from a physics teacher in Japan, showing the range of our journal. This was the Horse and Rider Balancer in Fig. 1 that was just like the woodcut in my note. The little…

Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the grip width on the power-force-velocity-profile, the maximal strength, and performance during a repetition to failure test in the pull-up exercise (PU). Method: Fourteen trained males performed an incremental loading and repetitions to failure test with the PU exercise…