The current study is compatible with the scientific mobility in dealing with the Internet as a source of knowledge. It aims to introduce the Physics Education Websites (PEWs) and guide their followers toward the most credibility of them by analyzing their content. The sample consisted of (36) websites which were selected according to specific…

Basic understanding of nuclear science enhances our daily-life experience in many areas, such as the environment, medicine, electric power generation, and even politics. Yet typical school curricula do not provide for experiments that explore the topic. We present a means by which educators can use the ubiquitous webcam and inexpensive sources of…

Suppose a block of mass "m"[subscript 1] traveling at speed "v"[subscript 1] makes a one-dimensional perfectly inelastic collision with another block of mass "m"[subscript 2]. What else does one need to know to calculate the fraction of the mechanical energy that is dissipated in the collision? (Contains 1 figure.)

"Modern science began in the Middle Ages," a fact that has been forgotten thanks to the celebrated accomplishments of Copernicus and Galileo, who did not acknowledge their predecessors. So states James Hannam in a January 2010 article in "History Today." Among the scientists of the Middle Ages that Hannam mentions is John…

Transverse standing waves produced on a string, as shown in Fig. 1, are a common demonstration of standing wave patterns that have nodes at both ends. Longitudinal standing waves can be produced on a helical spring that is mounted vertically and attached to a speaker, as shown in Fig. 2, and used to produce both node-node (NN) and node-antinode…

Students' ability to effectively study for an exam, or to manage their time during an exam, is related to their metacognitive capacity. Prior research has demonstrated the effective use of metacognitive strategies during learning and retrieval is related to content expertise. Students also make judgments of their own learning and of problem…

This study investigated science classroom discourse in terms of the types of teacher discursive moves (TDMs) and the relationships between the types of TDMs and student-led cognitive contributions in different science concepts by considering the classroom context. An experienced seventh-grade science teacher and her 19 students were engaged in…

The American Physical Society calls on its members to improve the diversity of physics by supporting an inclusive culture that encourages women and Black, Indigenous, and people of color to become physicists. In the current educational system, it is unlikely for a student to become a physicist if they do not share the same attitudes about what it…

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the education system worldwide, which was forced to respond with a sudden shift to distance learning. While successful distance teaching requires careful thinking, planning, and the development of technological and human resources, there was no time for preparation in the current situation. Various…

The present investigation aims to analyze the effect of motivation on students' causal attributions to choose or abandon chemistry when it first becomes optional in the secondary education curriculum in Spain. Attributions to the effect of the family and to the teacher and classroom methodology were found to be common predictors of the choice to…

Responsive instruction--or instruction that foregrounds and takes up the disciplinary substance of student thinking--is both a hallmark of recent STEM education reforms and challenging to enact. This kind of instruction may be especially challenging in instructional contexts that mandate or rely on curriculum with set, structured learning…

It has been the author's experience over many years, no doubt shared by others, that a stick of chalk usually breaks into three pieces when accidentally dropped onto the floor. I rarely gave it any thought, apart from noting that the fundamental mode of vibration of a freely supported, rigid rod has two nodes at an equal distance from each…

When eating cereal for breakfast, it is common to observe how cereal pieces move to the walls of the bowl. The same thing occurs when having tea--the small leaves tend to move toward the cup walls. While the suspension of objects on liquids due to surface tension is usually discussed in introductory physics courses, this phenomenon is not usually…

In our first article on scaling in theropod dinosaurs, the longitudinal stress in the leg bones due to supporting the weight of the animal was studied and found not to control the dimensions of the femur. As a continuation of our study of elasticity in dinosaur bones, we now examine the transverse stress in the femur due to locomotion and find…

The bounce of a ball is a seemingly innocuous event that can be used to illustrate many aspects of elementary and even advanced mechanics. Both normal and oblique bounces on a rigid surface are considered in this article, emphasizing qualitative features of the bounce process. If the ball bounces at an oblique angle then it can slide throughout…