Includes four articles that discuss a variety to topics, including a distributed network of physics institutions documents called PhysDocs which harvests information from the local Web-servers of professional physics institutions; the Dublin Core metadata initiative; information services for higher education in a competitive environment; and…

The Baldufa project at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain) is designed to assist physics teachers and students with teaching and learning activities. It has established Web and electronic-mail servers, is creating physics-related documents to be shared, is elaborating teaching strategies for using stored information, and offers…

Identifies the growing importance of electronic preprints in the published literature of physics and astronomy and address several areas of concern regarding the future role of electronic preprints in scientific communication. Topics include a history of preprints in astronomy and physics; inaccuracies in preprint citations; and archival issues.…

Discusses the GIRLS (Gifted, Intelligent, Real-Life Scientists) Science Camp. (YDS)

Students have problems successfully arranging an electric circuit to make the bulb produce light. Investigates the percentage of students able to complete a circuit with a given apparatus, and the effects of prior experience on student success. Recommends hands-on activities at the elementary and secondary school levels. (Contains 14 references.)…

Studied disciplinary differences and their impacts on preferred leadership patterns in four disciplines (history, sociology, biology, and physics) in 2 Finnish universities through 56 main interviews with faculty members. Results support the hypothesis that diverse disciplinary perspectives seem to be consistent with certain preferences concerning…

Presents an activity that involves students in a hands-on, creative project in which they use higher order thinking skills while designing and studying the basics of floating devices. Focuses on inquiry, a number of scientific principles, and the relationship between mathematics and science. (ASK)

Addresses the distinction between conceptual and algorithmic learning and the clarification of what is meant by a second-tier student. Explores why novice learners in chemistry and physics are able to apply algorithms without significant conceptual understanding. (DDR)

Reports on research into the conceptions of teaching school physics teachers in Guangdong, China, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research that involved interviews of 18 teachers and a survey of 450 teachers respectively. Comparisons with previous Western studies suggested that, while most teaching conceptions might be…

Textbooks rarely emphasize how controversial some physics theories were at the time of their proposal. Makes the case that useful classroom debate can be generated by considering the controversy that arose over models of the atom such as Rutherford's and Bohr's, and ideas about fractional charges put forward by Millikan and arising from quark…

Students need to do more than just look at web pages to learn from the Internet, they also need to interact and communicate with others. Describes ways to use resources from the internet in physics teaching. (Author/MM)

Shows how some of the simple ideas in complexity can be investigated using a spreadsheet and a macro written in Visual Basic. Shows how the sandpile model of Bak, Chao, and Wiesenfeld can be simulated and animated. The model produces results that cannot easily be predicted from its properties. (Author/MM)

Discusses the decrease in number of students taking physics at the senior secondary level and presents an outline of the colloquium which met in September, 1998, in Ireland through the cooperation between the Irish Department of Education and Science and other European union education ministries. (Contains 21 references.) (YDS)

Presents an activity in which the amount of solar ultraviolet radiation in tree shade is measured at different times of the day and compared with changes in illumination levels and temperature. (Author/WRM)

Argues that education reform cannot be limited to what goes on in the classroom. Contends that innovation does not inevitably lead to change until and unless the innovators take back control over factors exogenous to the classroom, factors such as pre-college selection, outside testing, accreditation requirements, and class size. (Author/WRM)