Describes a cross-curricular mathematics and physics course offered at Kanazawa Technical College in Japan. The course facilitates students' understanding of the connection between mathematics and physics through hands-on activities. Outlines the advantages of the cross-curricular approach, including students' increased levels of interest in…

Challenges the belief that high stakes tests are the keystone of students' educational attainment, describing a series of exploratory workshops, developed in reaction to this issue, in which teachers (as essential preparation for developing students' curiosity) deepened their understanding of the principles of physics by playing with light. Such…

Introduces a project in which students examined the physics, chemistry, and geology of radon and used available technology to measure radon concentrations in their homes. Uses the inquiry process, analytical skills, communication skills, content knowledge, and production of authentic products for student assessment. (YDS)

Reviews the following software: "Pizza to Go,""A World of Animals,""First Start Science,""MediClip,""Zurk's Learning Safari,""Paul Parkranger," and "Forces and Motion." (PR)

Presents detailed descriptions and diagrams for having students build their own syringe-powered rockets. Describes how the students can learn about variables that influence the stability of the rockets flight. (PR)

Discusses the benefits of linking schools in different parts of the world. Provides a list of what to do and what not to do in setting up such a program. Describes some of the opportunities available to teachers and students. (DDR)

Analyses the ways in which university-entrant science students carry out and communicate experimental activities, and identifies a model to explain characteristic communication practices. Observes the investigative strategies of participant students who have a lack of experience with laboratory work and scientific writing. Uses laboratory reports…

Considers the extent to which educational computer programs can affect educational results and what their usefulness is in the process of learning physics. Presents experimental research concerning the dependence of the level of students' cognitive activity in learning physics with computer programs, particularly learning by doing in the…

Explores the relationships among science and engineering attitudes, physics conceptual understanding, and physics achievement for a population of college freshman engineering students. Assesses a sample of freshman engineering students (n=200) participating in an integrated curriculum with the Force Concepts Inventory (FCI), Mechanics Baseline…

Describes a laboratory-based program in physics designed to help students build effective links between the mathematical equations used to solve problems in mechanics and the real world of moving objects. Conducts the study among senior college students and points out the value of laboratory work in science education for development of thinking…

Introduces an integrated unit on scuba science. Studies oxygen in kinetic theory, Boyle's law, Charles's law, Dalton's law, human circulatory and respiratory systems, and diving dangers such as decompression sickness. (YDS)

Presents an activity on waves that addresses the state standards and benchmarks of Michigan. Demonstrates waves and studies wave's medium, motion, and frequency. The activity is designed to address different learning styles. (YDS)

Teaches concepts such as inertia, gravity, and friction using a "Lunch Box Derby" activity. Uses vegetables for the construction of race cars. Explains student approaches during the design and construction portion. Describes the rubrics used for student evaluation. (YDS)

To learn how e-prints are cited, used, and accepted in the literature of physics and astronomy, the philosophies, policies, and practices of approximately 50 top-tier physics and astronomy journals regarding e-prints from the Los Alamos e-print archive were examined. Results provide a sense of the current impact of the evolution of e-prints on the…

Reports on part of a larger study of how 11- and 12-year-old students construct knowledge of electricity and magnetism by drawing on aspects of their experiences during the course of a school visit to an interactive science museum and subsequent classroom activities linked to the science museum exhibits. (Contains 24 references.) (Author/YDS)