In recent years, the importance of mobile devices has increased for education in general and more specifically for science and mathematics education. In the classroom, approaches for teaching with mobile devices include using student-owned devices ("bring your own device"; BYOD approach) or using school-owned devices from central pools…

In this paper, we provide examples of interactions with instructors that women in physics courses find condescending or intimidating based upon data from individual interviews with women in physics courses. We also provide some examples of interactions in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses that women found validating.…

Real situations are overlaid with virtual information using augmented reality technology. In a learning environment, this technology could give everyday relevance to abstract concepts. In this paper, we will show how physical structures in typical experiments can be simply augmented by virtual objects in physics classes. This is achieved by…

The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is widely used to investigate the effect of education level on conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics but has only recently been scrutinized for gender effects and retention. This study examines both the gender gap in first year physics undergraduates compared to the gap for nonphysicists and the FCI…

The author, Greg DeLisi, a professor at John Carroll University, is always looking for ways to bring current events into his introductory physics classroom or laboratory. He is especially interested in finding examples where basic principles of physics can be used to cast skepticism on assertions made by celebrities, politicians, or professional…

Control of variables strategy (CVS) is a core scientific reasoning skill related to domain-general experimentation for evaluating an experimental system and deducing valid conclusions. This study aims to develop, validate, and explore latent factors predicting item difficulty in the test, measuring CVS in physics for high school students. The…

Studies examining gender differences in introductory physics show a consensus when it comes to a gender gap on conceptual assessments; however, the story is not as clear when it comes to differences in gendered performance on exams. This study examined whether gendered differences exist on midterm and final exams in introductory physics courses…

This paper has a didactic aim. Indeed, starting from the well-known principle of free fall discovered by Galileo Galilei, we want to make some reflections that we consider useful for secondary school students. Being the acceleration invariant with respect to Galilei's transformations, it is useful to underline that the free fall in a gravitational…

In this study, we describe a method to employ a conventional compound light microscope, usually available in laboratories, to obtain fluorescence. In particular, two pieces of colored acrylic plastic were utilized to assist the microscope in filter performance. We also attempted to examine the applicability of the setup by staining onion cells…

Apparatus catalogues of the first half of the 20th century contain a number of clever and simple devices for measuring the index of refraction of a liquid. In some cases students can put together one of these pieces of apparatus and then make their own measurements. The Gilley board was one of the devices that caught my eye, and I would like to…

The formation of waves as used for surfing close to the shore is described and explained, and linked to other wave topics that are covered in school science. Of course, there are differences because the wave activity is influenced by many factors, such as the weather and the shape of the shoreline, which make the wave patterns much more…

This article presents some simple calculations related to the Future Circular Collider (FCC), which is being studied at CERN as a potential future replacement for the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The aim of this article is to bring particle physics into secondary school classrooms using the physics of the…

Students are often introduced to optics in their middle school years. The initial topics that are introduced through their lessons are laws of reflection and refraction of light. In the law of reflection, students do not often question why the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection and why a light ray should follow this specific…

In this work, an easy-to-set-up demonstration about electromagnetic induction is presented, where a simple toy electric motor is transformed into a musical instrument. With this creative way to mix physics and music, it is expected to engage and motivate students to learn about the basic concepts of electromagnetism.

Often students think of ECGs (electrocardiograms) as a diagnostic tool for heart attacks. In this activity, students are able to develop an approach to examine an ECG in order to determine what is known as the mean electrical axis (MEA) of their ventricle. In doing so, they not only learn another use for ECGs, they are able to see a real-world…