This paper describes an attempt at evaluating a potentially critical "detail" of teaching practice; that is, using a particular diagram to illustrate the imaging role of a converging lens. This "basic" diagram has been designed to contribute to help students overcome the well-known "travelling image" syndrome. We conducted a comparative study with…

College students often experience difficulties in solving physics problems. These difficulties largely result from a lack of conceptual understanding of the topic. The processes of conceptual learning reflect the nature of the causal reasoning process. Two major causal reasoning methods are the covariational and the mechanism-based approaches.…

The aim of this paper was to describe the changes in one student's ideas about force and one-dimensional motion concepts and portray the relevant metaconceptual processes that she engaged in during the implementation of metaconceptual teaching interventions. Metaconceptual processes involves metacognitive processes that are directly acting on or…

Gender differences in science interests were examined in two studies of projects entered in a regional science fair in kindergarten through grade 12. A content analysis of 1,319 project topics and materials submitted to the Northeastern Indiana Regional Science and Engineering Fair from 1991 through 1993 showed that girls were more likely than…

Popular belief in alternative assessment procedures suggests that the use of student portfolios can help learners successfully organize and integrate newly acquired scientific knowledge. This two-group comparison study documents the use of student created portfolios in an algebra-based, college-level, introductory physics course. Sixteen students…

This book highlights the importance of science and technology education in Australia in the post-compulsory years. It outlines the themes of how and why science and technology are now being so regularly associated in reports and reviews of education and training and contains an account of the changes in the societal and educational contexts that…

In this study, learners worked with a simulation of harmonic oscillation. Two supportive measures were introduced: model progression and assignments. In model progression, the model underlying the simulation is not offered in its full complexity from the start, but variables are gradually introduced. Assignments are small exercises that help the…

This series of educational activities is intended to help teachers communicate basic scientific concepts related to global warming and the greenhouse effect to students grades 7-10. Seven sessions provide laboratory activities, simulations, and discussions that can be used to improve student understanding of a number of important scientific…

The Inventory of Innovative Learning Materials in Marine Science and Technology includes 32 computer-, 148 video-, 16 film-, and 11 CD-ROM-based entries. They concern materials in biosciences (67), chemistry (5), geosciences (16), physics (23), technology (76) and other (20). This first, initial compilations is conceived as the basis for more…

This report presents 1991-92 data on enrollment trends in graduate physics as well as the educational backgrounds of physics and astronomy students, the proportions in which they chose their research specialties, career opportunities in terms of employers, and work activities and starting salaries. Highlights from the report show the following:…

This report analyzes data on bachelor's degree recipients in physics or astronomy in 1997. Data are from a survey of senior-level physics majors (n=1,696) and the American Institute of Physics' Enrollments and Degrees Survey, and include text, tables, and graphs. The report notes that: (1) the number of undergraduates who received bachelor's…

This report sets out results for Australia arising from its participation in the Second International Science Study (SISS). The focus is on Year 12 students, including those studying science and those not currently studying science. Most of the results for the science students are presented separately for those specializing in biology, chemistry,…

This report provides nationwide data on the salaries of members of the American Institute of Physics Member Societies for 1992. The report opens with a discussion of variations in doctorate salaries by geographic location. Data are presented for broad regions of the country, as well as for several states and individual cities. Compensation rates…

The ways in which Digital Video Interactive (DVI), a new video technology, can help students learn concepts of physics were studied in a project that included software design and production as well as formative and summative evaluation. DVI provides real-time motion, with the full-motion image contained to a window on part of the screen so that…

This guide for aviation technician training begins with a course description, resource information, and a course outline. Tasks/competencies are categorized into 16 concept/duty areas: understanding technical symbols and abbreviations; understanding mathematical terms, symbols, and formulas; computing decimals; computing fractions; computing ratio…