This study aims at knowing how students experience wikis while they are involved in a problem solving science activity. The study took place in a physics and chemistry 8th grade class (13 years old), where teacher implemented a problem solving activity about acid-base reactions, using a wiki. Participants were 20 students, of which 12 were female…

The purpose of this nonequivalent control group design study was to evaluate the effectiveness of metacognitive and self-regulatory strategy use on the assessment achievement of 215 9th-grade, residential physics students from low socioeconomic status (low-SES) backgrounds. Students from low-SES backgrounds often lack the self-regulatory habits…

The Colorado Learning Assistant (LA) Model has demonstrated that it is successful in helping to meet multiple goals including enhancing student learning in LA-supported courses, increasing conceptual understanding of physics among LAs, and improving the teaching practices of former LAs in K-12 schools. The research reported here investigated the…

The topic of Newtonian gravity offers a unique vantage point from which to investigate and encourage conceptual change because it is something with which everyone has daily experience, and because it is taught in two courses that reach a wide variety of students--introductory-level college astronomy ("Astro 101") and physics ("Phys…

This study examined the relationships among visuospatial ability, motivation to learn science, and learner conceptions of force across commonly measured demographics with university undergraduates with the aim of examining the support for an evolved sense of force and motion. Demographic variables of interest included age, ethnicity, and gender,…

Science and engineering instructors often observe that students have difficulty using or applying prerequisite mathematics knowledge in their courses. This qualitative project uses a case-study method to investigate the instruction in a trigonometry course and a physics course based on a different methodology and set of assumptions about student…

In reaction to the OECD-wide declining trend in scientific enrollments, the Italian government launched a policy in 2005 to promote the study of science at the university. The policy promoted extra-curricular activities for secondary school students in Chemistry, Physics, Math and Materials Science. This article evaluates the policy impact on…

This study is focused on the concept and formalism of work done and potential energy on the very fundamental level. A detailed analysis of the incomplete presentations of the topics found a major misconception that precluded acknowledgement of existence of certain nonradial effects caused by classical radial/center-bound gravitational force fields…

The Josephson effect, the 50th anniversary of which will be celebrated in 2012, remains one of the most spectacular manifestations of quantum mechanics in all of experimental science. It was first predicted in 1962 and then experimentally verified in 1963. At its most fundamental level the Josephson effect is nothing more than the electronic…

It is shown that the well-known linear variation of p-n diode terminal voltage with temperature at different fixed forward currents allows easy and accurate determination of the semiconductor ideality factor and bandgap from only two data points. This is possible if the temperature difference required to maintain the same diode voltage drop can be…

Glass beads are placed in the compartments of a horizontal square grid. This grid is then vertically shaken. According to the reduced acceleration [image omitted] of the system, the granular material exhibits various behaviours. By counting the number of beads in each compartment after shaking, it is possible to define three regimes. At low…

Thought experiments involving a light clock are common in introductory treatments of special relativity, because they provide a simple way of demonstrating the non-intuitive phenomenon of time dilation. The properties of the ray or pulse of light that is continuously reflected between the parallel mirrors of the clock are often stated vaguely and…

About 20 years ago, while lost in the midst of his PhD research, the author mused over proposed titles for his thesis. He was pretty pleased with himself when he came up with "Chaos Rules" (the implied double meaning was deliberate), or more completely, "Chaos Rules: An Exploration of the Work of Instructional Designers in Distance Education." He…

Research on peer reviewing has revealed that comments received from peer reviewers are helpful when it comes to making revisions in an individual's writing, but the role of providing comments to peer writers has been little explored despite the potential value of such research. In this study, we explored how student reviewers learn by reviewing…

Many physics teachers assign projects where students are asked to measure real-world motion. One purpose of this student-centered activity is to cultivate the relevance of physics in their lives. Typical project topics may include measuring the speed of a student's fastball and calculating how much reaction time batters are given. Another student…