One author of this article is a particle physics researcher; the other is an artist. Although they come from different sides of the spectrum of liberal arts, what they share in common is that they are both communicators and educators. This article tells the story of how this unlikely pair came together to collaborate and generate creative art that…

Students use a variety of resources to make sense of integration, and interpreting the definite integral as a sum of infinitesimal products (rooted in the concept of a Riemann sum) is particularly useful in many physical contexts. This study of beginning and upper-level undergraduate physics students examines some obstacles students encounter when…

Students will sometimes ask why momentum and kinetic energy concepts are both necessary. When physics teachers demonstrate situations that require both an understanding of kinetic energy and momentum, a favorite is Newton's cradle, or a comparable demonstration of two balls of equal mass hitting each other. However, in addition to the case of two…

The advantages of deriving the coefficient of kinematic friction from measurements of the damping of oscillatory motion have recently been described. The measurement of the acceleration rather than displacement has the advantage that, as well as the linear amplitude decay, the acceleration discontinuities due to the friction reversal can be…

A ball that rolls without sliding down an inclined plane requires a small static friction force to prevent the ball sliding down the incline. The magnitude of that force is investigated by considering the force needed to prevent the contact point from slipping.

Environmental Physiology at Boise State University, Idaho, is a multidisciplinary course that expands students' understanding of human regulatory physiology through acute and chronic responses to environmental extremes. Students explore the physics (pressure, fluid dynamics, gas laws, sound, and light) of the underwater environment, marine flora…

A new diagnostic instrument, the Conceptual Survey on Wave Optics (CSWO), was developed and validated on 224 high school students (aged 18-19 years) in Croatia. The process of test construction, which included the testing of 61 items on the total of 712 students is presented. The final version of the test consists of 26 multiple-choice items which…

In the summer of 2020, due to COVID-19, institutions either canceled or remotely hosted their research experience for undergraduates (REU) programs. We carried out a 16-week longitudinal study examining the impact of these fully remote research experiences on mentees' psychosocial gains (e.g., identity). We studied the phenomenon of a remote…

STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education is widespread around the globe, with various theoretical frameworks and challenges from practical perspectives. In classroom practice, teacher readiness to conduct STEM learning is essential for its successful implementation. This study explores physics teachers' readiness for STEM…

Quantum technology is an emerging field of physics and engineering and important applications are expected in quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum cryptography, quantum simulation, and quantum metrology. Thus the need for education in this field is increasing, while still remaining challenging. While the need for basic education in quantum…

Quantum mechanics (QM) has become part of many secondary school curricula. These curricula often do not include the mathematical tools for a formal, mathematical introduction of QM. QM therefore needs to be taught at a more conceptual level, but making secondary school students understand counterintuitive QM concepts without introducing…

This study aimed to determine the impact of using web vinnarrai.com as an e-learning tool on a physics course (fluid mechanics) in Universitas Negeri Jakarta (an Indonesian University) to increase student creative thinking skills through educational management. The study employed a quasi-experimental method, with the pre-test and post-test control…

Relating mathematics learned in the classroom to real situations increases student motivation and enhances learning. In this paper, we provide an example of a classroom application of calculus to physiology in two courses: "Differential Equations" and "Calculus I for Biology and Medicine." We designed and implemented a project…

Development of cognitive skills is critical for developing the right conceptual ideas in chemistry. Atomic structure, bonding, and associated properties are taught as parts of high school chemistry courses worldwide. The cumulative build-up of misconceptions about the periodic table is to blame for students' poor performance on atoms and…

Students with high reading proficiency typically achieve better results in science assessments, indicating the importance of reading proficiency. Since the process of reading is a complex interaction between properties of a text and a reader, the linguistic demands of a text might affect text comprehension. Certain linguistic features, such as…