Examines the gear system of a mountain bike to discover any redundancy in the many gear settings available to the cyclist. Suggests a best strategy for changing up through the gears on a typical 21-gear system and an adjustment to the available gears that would result in a smoother change. (Author/ASK)

Establishes a relationship between students' understanding of gases and its parallels in the history of science. Finds that college freshman students' alternative conceptions about gas behavior are resistant to change and recapitulate theories scientists held in the past, such as the Lattice Theory of Gases. (Contains 52 references.) (Author/WRM)

Describes experiments with electrostatics that are convenient for classroom demonstrations or laboratory activities. These experiments use a Kelvin balance and a relatively inexpensive electronic scale with 0.01-g sensitivity and essentially stationary pans. (WRM)

Uses aquarium and computer mirages to explain natural mirages caused by severe temperature inversions and appropriate topography. (WRM)

Describes the construction and use of a portable "sparker" or "lightning machine" that can be used to demonstrate dielectric breakdown of air. (WRM)

Presents a set of hands-on electrostatics experiments in the form of an activity guide and worksheet through which students discover the different types of electric charge, Coulomb's Law, induced charge separation, and grounding. (DDR)

Announces the theme for National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) 1998 and offers a rationale for the choice of the topic of polar connections. Suggests that the poles offer a glimpse of science as high adventure. The poles are often seen as pristine, nearly lablike environments that provide a platform for animal studies. (DDR)

Reports on a preliminary project that uses a phenomenographic approach to explore the ways in which a small number of fundamental ideas are conceptualized by students who are judged to have mastered quantum mechanics material. (DDR)

Identifies subject and teaching knowledge that primary school teachers can use to effectively develop children's understanding of electricity and simple circuits. Presents a set of electricity concepts that are appropriate for primary children to explore. Contains 19 references. (DDR)

Outlines a course based on a series of experiments in which students are introduced to the behavior of electrical components without any references to Ohm's law. Argues that this approach has advantages over the traditional presentation. (DDR)

Summarizes an interdisciplinary undergraduate research project involving experimental physics and calculus and illustrates how mathematics was used to finesse incomplete experimental information and maximize physical quantity known as jerk. Describes how calculus can be applied in the "real world" where functions are not always given by nice…

Introduces a group activity in which students build a catapult. Includes a list of materials required for catapult construction and directions for testing. (YDS)

Investigates whether viewing computer animations representing the process of diffusion and osmosis affects students' conceptions. Discusses the difficulties of implementing computer animations in the classroom. (Contains 27 references.) (YDS)

Presents two exercises on the study of tropisms. Discusses gravitropism control mechanisms present in plants. (ASK)

Using a balance-beam task, studied 48 preschoolers to elucidate the process of knowledge construction from the emergence of new representation to transformed problem solving. Analyses revealed a multifaceted development from the first signs of weight representation to fully elaborated weight-based problem solving. Case studies of five children…