This article explores some of the common mathematical difficulties that 11- to 16-year-old students experience with respect to their learning of physics. The definition of "understanding" expressed in the article is in the sense of transferability of mathematical skills from topic to topic within physics as well as between the separate…

In this research, the negative perceptions of undergraduate students regarding modern physics course and the causes of their negative perceptions have been investigated. For this investigation, a qualitative and quantitative method (mix method) was chosen for data collection and analysis. The study group of the research consists of a total of 169…

This article presents a study aiming at assessing the efficacy of reading newspaper articles with scientific content in order to incorporate nature of science (NOS) aspects in initial primary teacher education. To this aim, a short teaching intervention based on newspaper articles was planned and performed under regular class conditions. First,…

We have investigated gender differences in performance over the past eight years on the Australian Science Olympiad Exam (ASOE) for physics,which is taken by nearly 1000 high school students each year. The ASOE, run by Australian Science Innovations (ASI), is the initial stage of the process of selection of teams to represent Australia at the…

This phenomenographic case study attempted to determine the alternative and misconceptions of learners in selected concepts in Physics. The research adds another dimension to understanding alternative conception in kinematics by qualitatively determining how learners describe/define a distance of 0m, a displacement of 0m, a speed of 0m/s, a…

We have iteratively designed and researched five digital games focusing on Newtonian dynamics for middle school classrooms during the past seven years. The designs have evolved dramatically in terms of the roles and relationships of the formal representations, phenomenological representations, and control schemes. Phenomenological representations…

A simple machine does one of two things: create a mechanical advantage (lever) or change the direction of an applied force (pulley). Fluid foils are unique among simple machines because they not only change the direction of an applied force (wheel and axle); they convert fluid energy into mechanical energy (wind and Kaplan turbines) or vice versa,…

While we still do not have a definitive answer about the reason(s) for which birds stand on one leg, a list of suggestions has been offered both by expert ornithologists and amateur birdwatchers. We offer a perspective grounded in statics and rotational dynamics that has not been suggested in the literature. The discussion has implications for…

In a recent note in this journal, Gluck presents a beautiful demonstration of the standing wave generated by a strip of material with linearly varying width (a trapezoid). As expected, the resulting wave envelope (and its shadow) showed a varying wavelength--smaller as the strip width gets larger.

Approximately 50,000 people ran and walked down the street past my home in the 33rd annual running of the 10-km Bolder Boulder footrace on the morning of Memorial Day, May 30, 2011. In addition to the serious runners, there were many individuals dressed in all manner of amusing festival costumes; some were jogging and some were walking. Early in…

In spite of the concerted efforts of physicists, philosophers, mathematicians, and logicians, no final clarification of the concept of mass has been reached. So concludes Jammer in his book on the history of the concept. The Nobel laureate Wilczek called our attention to the problem in his papers on the concepts of the fundamental equation of…

This summer, perhaps while you were lounging around the pool in the blistering heat, the blogosphere was buzzing about data taken at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The buzz reached a crescendo in the first week of July when both Fermilab and CERN announced the results of their searches for the Higgs boson. Hard data confronted a theory nearly…

Are there functions for which Newton's method cycles for all non-trivial initial guesses? We construct and solve a differential equation whose solution is a real-valued function that two-cycles under Newton iteration. Higher-order cycles of Newton's method iterates are explored in the complex plane using complex powers of "x." We find a class of…

We evaluate the effects of participation in the Swedish version of the Science and Technology for Children Program on content and process skills in sciences, in grade 9. The Swedish version, called Natural Sciences and Technology for All (NTA), is predominantly employed in grades 1-6. Our outcome measures are scores and grades on nationwide…

Background: High-stakes assessments, such the Graduate Records Examination, have transitioned from paper to computer administration. Low-stakes research-based assessments (RBAs), such as the Force Concept Inventory, have only recently begun this transition to computer administration with online services. These online services can simplify…