Physics students have traditionally prepared many kinds of reports-- laboratory, activity, project, and even book or article reports. Smartphones and YouTube videos are familiar cultural objects to current students, and our students use smartphone cameras to include photographs of apparatus, phenomena, hand-sketched figures, graphs, and…

The structure and definition of professional knowledge is a continuing focus of science education research. In 2012, a pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) summit was held and it suggested a model of professional knowledge and skill including PCK, which was later often called the Consensus Model (Gess-Newsome, 2015. A model of teacher professional…

Electrostatic potential energy is a topic of great difficulty for many students. In this paper, we empirically test the utility of two approaches for laying a foundation for developing an understanding of energy in an electrostatic context, with interdisciplinary relevance. We examine student responses to a question about how the potential energy…

Providing diagnostic feedback about growth is crucial to formative decisions such as targeted remedial instructions or interventions. This article proposed a longitudinal higher-order diagnostic classification modeling approach for measuring growth. The new modeling approach is able to provide quantitative values of overall and individual growth…

The purpose of this study is to examine reflections of the design process of the Rube Goldberg machines on prospective science teachers' STEM awareness. A mixed design approach was opted for in this research. Data were obtained using learning diaries and a STEM awareness scale. Quantitative data was analyzed using a paired samples test. Content…

In the present article, a simple model for teaching the falling motion of a bungee jumper is presented and evaluated in terms of students' learning. The model allows one to make qualitative predictions about the accelerations of bungee jumpers with different masses and cord densities. The model was taught during a 90min teaching unit to physics…

The mystery tube is a fairly well known activity among science teachers for illustrating the nature of science. A variety of procedures have been presented for carrying out this activity, such as Scott Miller's method based on the BCSE 5E Instructional Model. Mystery tubes and other "black box" activities allow the students to engage in…

While circuitry lessons have traditionally been first introduced in late elementary school, they remain challenging conceptually for undergraduates in physics and engineering courses. Seeking to provide a higher quality and earlier introduction to circuitry learning for young children (ages 3-5), this paper investigates the affordances of…

This paper presents the creation of an educational resource using the camera of a mobile phone and video analysis software. The movie recorded is part of a daily context: an airplane's take-off. This work shows a way to introduce information and communication technologies (ICT) and digital educational resources (DER) as tools to teach and…

Scientific concepts are the building blocks of scientific thought and science communication. Therefore, to achieve scientific literacy it is necessary to construct and define the concepts accurately. In this study, the concept of friction force, which is frequently encountered in science textbooks, is discussed. The explanations of the concept in…

The main goal of this study is to present the effectiveness improvement of student's creative thinking skills using CBL implemented in STEM education and CBL combined with worksheet PSL. The STEM education perspective used in this study is a separate science discipline (Physics) that incorporates other disciplines. The research method used in this…

Demonstrating knowledge of major concepts and critical thinking are common learning outcomes for general education courses, especially in the sciences. Although numerous valid and reliable measures of conceptual understanding exist, the determination of critical thinking level is often more difficult, subjective, and domain-specific. This study…

The gender gap in science education has been a persistent topic of research and initiatives designed to narrow the gap have been successful within specific domains. However, although the gender gap is continuing to decrease, equity and equal representation are still lacking in some domains. Self-efficacy levels, interest levels, attitudes, and…

The advent of new educational technologies has stimulated interest in using online videos to deliver content in university courses. We examined student engagement with 78 online videos that we created and were incorporated into a one-semester flipped introductory mechanics course at the Georgia Institute of Technology. We found that students were…

An audience response system ("clickers") was gradually incorporated into introductory physics courses at Worcester Polytechnic Institute during the years 2011-14. Clickers were used in lectures, as a means of preparing for labs, and for collection of exam data and grading. Average student grades were 13.5% greater, as measured by…