In this study, we aimed to develop an instrument that could be used to measure students' achievement in modern physics at high school level in a valid and reliable manner. The study was carried out in fall 2013-2014 with a total of 304 students. In this study, expert opinions were obtained to determine the test's content validity. The reliability…

In this paper, an educational tool is proposed to show the internal photoelectric effect in a simple and clear way for Undergraduate Physics courses or High Schools. Experimental evidence of the photoelectric effect is particularly important in the didactic experience. This effect is fundamental to introduce students to the world of quantum…

In high school and elementary college physics labs the measurement of vertical distance is often required. Measuring the distance an object falls or the vertical displacement of springs in a Hooke's law experiment are commonplace. Determining these distances to perhaps a millimeter or two of precision is difficult without an expensive height gauge…

This study addresses the obstacles and lack of support available for physics students who are also parents. The purpose of this study is to provide physics parents with strategies that other students like them have used and provide ideas for universities and physics faculty to support physics students who are raising children. Majoring in physics…

Gender bias and inequity are pervasive in physics, but teachers can help. A recent Resource Letter digs into the history, current status, and classroom implications of gender and physics. However, one finding from that work was the tendency for "gender in physics" research to treat sex and gender as the same thing and to neglect the…

Items that are chained, or blocked, together appear on many of the conceptual assessments utilized for physics education research. However, when items are chained together there is the potential to introduce local dependence between those items, which would violate the assumption of item independence required by classical test theory,…

Barriers to women's education and employment in Europe and the United States in the 19th century made it unlikely that any women would be among the few physicists whose ideas are taught in high school and college courses. This paper explores the social settings in which three influential physicists worked--James Clerk Maxwell, Robert Millikan, and…

Although nearly everyone is familiar with colors from an early age and the fundamentals of color mixing are taught at various abstraction levels throughout kindergarten to high school, we repeatedly observe that our student teachers in physics have problems in explaining the subject. Therefore, we propose an experimental setup that focuses on the…

Arduino microcontrollers are becoming increasingly popular in the physics/astronomy community. These devices can provide more in-depth labs on mechanics, electricity and magnetism, light and optics, etc., in addition to programming. These devices can be readily utilized to reach more non-physics/astronomy majors and underrepresented STEM students.…

The Search for Exoplanets is an interactive computer simulation, the product of a collaboration between the Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Computer Science at Purdue University. Our goal was to create a computer simulation that would introduce students to scientific principles, research methodology, and analysis of data with which…

In this paper, we present activities that help students deepen their understanding of basic electrostatics using an electroscope in combination with the photoelectric effect. The students investigate the behaviour of an isolated electroscope when the metal housing of the electroscope is charged. The activities follow the framework of the…

In this paper, we present three types of activity that we have observed during students' free exploration of a software called "Algodoo," which allows students to explore a range of physics phenomena within the same digital learning environment. We discuss how, by responding to any of the three activity types we identify in the students'…

Kinesthetic experiences in the classroom seek to engage students by muscle movement, touch, or some form of physical activity. In this article, I describe an active learning session wherein students develop a qualitative understanding of center of mass and support forces using their sense of touch. The set of activities detailed here is based on a…

The dynamics of a spring pendulum is an important topic in introductory experimental physics courses at universities and advanced science courses in secondary school education. Different types of pendulum setups with smartphones were proposed to investigate, e.g., the gravitational acceleration, to measure spring constants, or to illustrate and…

Among the many decisions to be made in their teaching practice, physics teachers must decide how to explain each particular phenomenon to students. This study explores student teachers' ("STs") decision-making process when presented with several explanations of a physical phenomenon that might be used for teaching purposes. During…