Photovoltaic-cell-based projects have been used to train eight incoming undergraduate women who were part of a residential summer programme at a women's college. A module on renewable energy and photovoltaic cells was developed in the physics department. The module's objectives were to introduce women in science, technology, engineering and…

This is the first study to use self-reported ratings of student learning, instructor recommendations, and course recommendations as the outcome measure to estimate class size effects, doing so across 24 disciplines. Fixed-effects models controlling for heterogeneous courses and instructors reveal that increasing enrollment has negative and…

Scientific collaboration can only be understood along the epistemic and cognitive grounding of scientific disciplines. New scientific discoveries in astrophysics led to a major restructuring of the elite network of astrophysics. To study the interplay of the epistemic grounding and the social network structure of a discipline, a mixed-methods…

Building students' ability to transfer physics fundamentals to real-world applications establishes a deeper understanding of underlying concepts while enhancing student interest. Forensic science offers a great opportunity for students to apply physics to highly engaging, real-world contexts. Integrating these opportunities into inquiry-based…

Quantitative secondary analysis of large-scale data can be combined with in-depth qualitative methods. In this paper, we discuss the role of this combined methods approach in examining the uptake of physics and chemistry in post compulsory schooling for students in England. The secondary data analysis of the National Pupil Database (NPD) served…

Lenz's law is sometimes invoked to explain the behaviour of the jumping, or levitating, ring. This is shown to be incomplete, and an alternative explanation using Faraday's laws and circuit analysis is offered. This leads to the choice of optimum material and dimensions for the ring. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

This article introduces a research study on student model formation and development in introductory mechanics. As a point of entry, I present a detailed analysis of the Long Decay Model of one-dimensional projectile motion. This model has been articulated by Galileo ("in De Motu") and by contemporary students. Implications for instruction are…

In this article, the authors describe two classroom experiments that can be interpreted by means of Bernoulli's law. The first experiment uses a lighted candle in front of a mirror and a stream of air that is sent obliquely towards the mirror. The purpose of this experiment is to find out which way the flame will bend if air is blown at a given…

Archimedes (287-212 BC) is well known for his explanation of buoyancy, and in particular for his "eureka" moment. This experiment uses his density measurement method to find the purity of gold, and additional confirmation of the findings are given by x-ray fluorescence. (Contains 4 figures and 1 table.)

This paper reports on a programme of research carried out over a period of twenty years by Joan Bliss, Jon Ogborn and others, and aimed at understanding how pupils and students reason about the everyday physical world. Our starting point was the science alternative conceptions literature, particularly force and motion, where the results puzzled…

Among the many changes that have taken place in physics education in recent years is the fact that physics introductory texts have undergone some drastic changes in layout, content, approach and presentation. It is a total breath of fresh air compared with the drab physics texts of yesteryear. This paper takes a closer look on the changes that…

This paper relates several serendipitous discoveries in physics in the 19th and 20th centuries. They are all experimental in nature and the places range from reputable universities to modern research laboratories. The discoverers could be working in solo or in group. The subject discovered ranges from the finest nucleus to the limitless cosmos.…

This work ends a trilogy devoted to a journey into the foundations of special relativity. The first paper debated the meaning of the constancy of the two-way speed of light and its close relation to the conceptualization of time. The second one addressed the question of the possible constancy of the one-way speed of light and the trivial--but,…

Compton scattering and diffuse scattering degenerate the contrast in radiographic images. To avoid such scattering effects, a grid, between the patient and the film is currently used to improve the image quality. Teaching this topic to medical physics students requires demonstration experiments. In this paper, an optical analog to an x-ray…

We have built a device that uses the Lorentz force on a current-carrying wire situated in a magnetic field, F = I L x B, in order to demonstrate a slowly varying alternating current by means of an optical lever. The apparatus consists of a horseshoe magnet, a length of thin enamel-coated wire (ours was 0.3 mm thick), a signal generator, a…