An atlatl or spearthrower is perhaps humanity's oldest technology for accelerating projectiles. The dynamics prior to launch of the dart projectile have been much discussed in the literature. In this article we present a simple new model of launch dynamics and show that dart flex is not an important factor in determining launch speed, but it…

Many of the old demonstrations in electricity and magnetism can be performed more effectively and with greater visual appeal by using newly available neodymium magnets and color LEDs. For this reason several demonstrations, commonly used for teaching electromagnetic induction and Lenz's law, have received renewed attention in recent years. In…

We investigate the motion of fidget spinners of different configurations with the help of simple devices. Physical quantities associated with the fidget spinner motion like angular speed, moment of inertia and kinetic energy are determined and compared in different configurations. A configurable modification of the fidget spinners is done to…

Pinhole camera photography is explored using a set of entomology pins due to their known pin diameters and availability in a variety of sizes. A procedure to prepare removable-lens digital cameras for pinhole photography is described. A video is included showing a set of ten insect pins and how to fit the camera with pinhole apertures. Formulas…

Part 1 of the series looked at teaching speed and velocity. Part 2 considers the teaching of acceleration in physics. Teachers may find it okay to hurry through the concepts of speed and velocity because they are intuitive. But teachers cannot hurry through acceleration quite so quickly because it is not intuitive. Whereas velocity is a rate of…

There have been a few methods described in this journal and elsewhere for measuring the wavelength of the standing electromagnetic waves in a microwave oven. Typically, these involve melting chocolate, cheese, or some other substance on a plate that is prevented from rotating. In this article I describe a more dynamic and colorful technique that…

Currently, there is a focus in science education on preparing students for lives as innovative and resilient citizens of the twenty-first century. Key to this is providing students with opportunities, mainly through inquiry processes, for discovery making and developing their creative reasoning by bringing school science closer to authentic…

There is a need for more courses that directly address the role business plays in the development of new products and technology. This is particularly true in the areas of green and sustainable chemistry where altruism is often not enough to overcome perceived increased cost. Chemistry of Sustainable Products is an undergraduate chemistry course…

The implementation of environmentally friendly, solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis in an undergraduate chemistry teaching laboratory is described. As a model reaction, the experiment addresses the catalytic mechanochemical synthesis of a small library of sulfonylureas, including a known active pharmaceutical ingredient, tolbutamide. The…

What do you get when you cross a rubber band with a photocopier? You get a whole series of physics lessons and some great images! It's easy to get this activity up and running, be amazed, and apply it to any number of scientific concepts. It lends itself to a whole host of investigations. This easy-to-do activity can also be aligned to NGSS…

It has been 150 years since D.I. Mendeleev formulated the Periodic law and expressed it visually in the form of a table of elements in 1869. As is clearly well known today, Mendeleev's ideas, confirmed by the discovery of the elements he predicted, turned out to be very promising indeed. However, Mendeleev was not the first, nor the only scientist…

This study aimed to investigate the effects of the applications conducted in the science center within the scope of the science lesson "Solar System and Beyond" unit of the 7th-grade students in the secondary school, on the perceptions of the students about the out-of-school learning environments (OSLEs). In the quantitative part of the…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mandatory changes were required in the field of education, as in many other fields. One of these fields is a teacher training programme, which includes teaching practice. It has become of great importance that pre-service science teachers, who frequently include experiments in their teaching practices in face-to-face…

There is a long tradition of teaching science through inquiry, with broad agreement about the form it should take. Students should investigate researchable questions; gather and analyse data; and develop and represent evidence-based claims. Authoritative teacher or textbook representations are generally used to guide this learning (Buckley &…

There is a pressing need to develop processes to facilitate the organization of education responses in time-pressured emergency situations. As part of a joint Learning Passport (LP) partnership project with UNICEF, researchers along with curriculum and subject specialists at the University of Cambridge, UK, developed a curriculum framework that…