Examined the influence of subject matter knowledge on students' recall of and interest in scientific exposition by assessing the topic knowledge and domain knowledge of 209 college students reading 2 passages from the physics domain. Findings tend to support a three-stage model of domain learning with an interactive picture of knowledge, recall,…

Argues that thermal physics should not be treated as a separate topic in introductory physics. Provides an example of a course that emphasizes physical modeling of the phenomenon in terms of the atomic nature of matter. (Author/CCM)

Investigates students' understandings and misconceptions of specific concepts in chemistry by using the quantum model of atoms and molecules. (Contains 20 references.) (YDS)

Discusses Newton's long struggle with the concepts of inertia and centrifugal force as an example of high-grade scientific thinking. Discusses the role of textbooks and how they largely emphasize memorization. Suggests that the historical approach can be more time-consuming than textbook-based teaching and that it requires a good understanding of…

Uses a teaching approach in which students prepare their own physics activity lesson plans and use them in class with other students. (YDS)

Encourages Level 1 students (those taking a subject for the first time at the higher education level) to develop a deeper learning approach. Uses a cooperative learning approach to pose conceptual questions for interactive discussions and changes both teaching method and form of examination paper for a Mechanics module. (Contains 17 references.)…

Presents an inquiry-based science laboratory on the harmonic motion of the pendulum aimed at middle and high school students. Explains the appropriate assessment procedure for the laboratory. (YDS)

In physics, neither courses for majors nor for non-majors provide the kind of preparation required for teaching physics or physical science by inquiry. Indicates that science methods courses cannot help teachers develop the depth of understanding needed for this type of teaching. Offers a practical alternative for special physics courses for…

Suggests two improved methods to measure the speed of sound in a metal rod. One employs a fast timer to measure the time required for a compression pulse to travel along the rod from end to end, and a second uses a microphone to measure the frequency of the fundamental mode of a freely suspending singing rod. (Author/ASK)

Studied the process of conceptual change among four high school students as they studied thermal physics, focusing on the role of metaconceptual teaching. The pedagogical success demonstrated for integrating scientific and everyday views is consistent with the difficulties young adolescents experience dealing with a relativistic epistemology in…

Imaging and other scientific instruments in space can reveal mysteries of the universe that reach far beyond any distance that would ever be practical for human space travel. As far back as the 1600s, Galileo used the crudest possible telescope technology to see the largest moons of Jupiter. The secret to making telescopes better is to make their…

This article reports on a phenomenographic-based study of the expectations of teaching among undergraduate physics students. Data are drawn from a range of course-contexts at each of two quite different universities--one South African and one Swedish--and five qualitatively different expectations of physics teaching are identified and exemplified.…

One of the most profound qualities of science is its potential to transform and enrich students' experiences with the world. In prior work, I have conceptualized this quality of science in the construct of transformative experience. In order to illustrate the difference between transformative and nontransformative experience, this article presents…

In science, inquiry is used as students explore important and interesting questions concerning the world around them. In mathematics, one contemporary inquiry approach is to create models that describe real phenomena. Creating mathematical models using spreadsheets can help students learn at deep levels in both science and mathematics, and give…

Self-rated sense of direction is reliably related to people's accuracy when pointing in the direction of unseen landmarks from imagined or actual perspectives. It is proposed that the cognitive substrate of accurate pointing responses is a vector representation, which is defined as an integrated network of displacement vectors. Experiment 1…