In a recent article in "Physics Today," Meredith and Redish emphasized the need to make introductory physics courses beneficial for life sciences majors. In this study, a lab activity is proposed to measure the intensity of electromagnetic waves emitted by cell phones and connect these measurements to various standards, biological…

Ever since the first generalized computer-assisted instruction system (PLATO) was introduced over 50 years ago, educators have been adding computer-based materials to their classes. Today many textbooks have complete online versions that include video lectures and other supplements. In the past 25 years the web has fueled an explosion of online…

This paper describes a new approach towards the implementation of history of physics in physics education. Reconstructed historical instruments are given to secondary school students. These students are requested to analyze these devices with the aim of collecting sufficient information in order to build their own working version of this device.…

A very old and well-known magical trick is the so-called tablecloth pull. A table is covered with a tablecloth, on top of which are certain objects. The task is to remove the tablecloth while the objects--which must not be touched--stay on top of the table. This article describes the physics behind the experiment, and presents examples recorded…

Web based learning has found its place in educational methods with the development of internet and internet technologies. The materials, that used with web based learning environments, should have some properties like visualization, pedagogic acceptance and convenience for students level. The purpose of this study is to construct two web based…

In recent decades, changes in society have deeply affected the internal organization and the main goals of schools. These changes are particularly important in science education because science is one of the major sources of change in peoples' lives. This research provided the opportunity to investigate how these changes affect the way teachers…

Every year millions of people contract cancer in the world, and according to prediction of the World Health Organization by the year 2030 there will be about 27 million new cases. Because of these figures and the resulting social and economic implications of this disease, radiotherapy, which is one form of treatment that uses ionizing radiation,…

The research investigated the influence of creative style and gender on students' achievement in physics. The sample consisting one hundred (100) Senior Secondary II physics students, made up of 50 males and 50 females in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, were administered the Kirton Adaptor-Innovator Inventory (KAI),…

The sparse literature on the use of imperatives in research papers suggests that they are relatively common in a small number of disciplines, but rare, if used at all, in others. The present study addresses the use of imperatives in a corpus of upper-level A-graded student papers from 16 disciplines. A total of 822 papers collected within the past…

Smartphones and tablets are packed with sensors that allow us to take experimental data, essentially making them mobile physics labs. Apps exist that make it easy to capture and analyze data from these sensors, allowing users to study diverse phenomena such as free fall acceleration, the speed of sound,radioactivity, and many others. Commonly, the…

Chaos theory is not present in the Italian school curricula and textbooks in spite of being present in many topics of classical physics and in everyday life. Chaotic dynamics, in fact, are involved in phenomena easily accessible to everyone or in events experienced by most people in their lives (the dripping of a faucet which keeps people awoken…

Drawing on large-scale survey data and interviews with students during their first year at university, and case studies in their institutions, we explore the problems faced by students taking mathematically demanding courses, e.g. physics and engineering. These students are often taught mathematics as a service subject by lecturers of mathematics.…

The advent of Twitter® and other social media services of its type ushered in a new era of professional development in education. This article addresses how a group of users have been employing Twitter to conduct professional development sessions that would benefit their participants by advancing their pedagogical approaches to learning and…

When grading students' quizzes and exams, I find that students are seemingly always changing their answers from the right answer to the wrong answer. In fact, I have cautioned students against changing their answer. Colleagues have made similar observations and some books on test-taking strategies advise against answer-changing. In an effort to…

Although acoustics examples and demonstrations can be an effective tool for engaging students in introductory physics classes and outreach, teaching principles of sound and vibration to the deaf and hard of hearing needs to be approached carefully. The deaf and hard of hearing have less intuition with sound but are no strangers to some of the…