This document contains a series of six modules which illustrate selected concepts of mechanics with hands-on activities and audiovisual materials. Following the modules is a collection of readings which give detailed explanations of the concepts presented in the activities. A guide for teachers and workshop leaders is provided for use in planning…

Shows how simple ideas about the forces between atoms and molecules can be used to explain, at an elementary level, some of the bulk properties of matter. (Author/CP)

Describes construction of two flashing light sources: an adjustable-rate battery-powered flasher and a neon tube powered by a 60-hertz electrical outlet. Both devices may be used for a variety of activities, including studies of free-falling object, pendulum period variation, and acceleration due to gravity. (JN)

Presents a lesson in the mechanics of rotation which deals with setting the playground swing into motion. Discusses the scientific principles involved in these procedures. Illustrations of several explanations are included. (RT)

Discusses the correctness of the directions of acceleration at various points in a pendulum problem shown in Reif (1987). Provides the author's responses to the comments on the problem. (YP)

The first demonstration shows rolling balls on two tracks: one is straight and the other dips down and then comes back up. Discusses the reason why the former is slower than the latter. The second demonstration shows a rising cork inside a water tube flowing downward. (YP)

Describes the activities of the Physics Teachers Action Research Group in which college physics teachers work together in planning, revising, and evaluating student projects that foster greater conceptual understanding and address student misconceptions. Presents the details of a project in which students were asked to build an accelerometer. (JRH)

Describes the Packard's Falling Body Apparatus, invented by John C. Packard, which is essentially an inclined plane combined with a simple and elegant method of measuring the relative time of descent of a steel ball. (JRH)

Discusses the behavior of objects in fluids having densities that increase with depth. Provides equations and a diagram of the system providing the temperature gradient. (MVL)

Discusses an aligner that permits dropping a stack of any number of balls of different sizes, elasticities, hardnesses, or types to observe the rebound of the top ball. Experimental results allow a reasonable comparison with theory. (MVL)

Two ways to visually enhance the concept of space curvature are described. Viewing space curvature as a meterstick contraction and the heavy banana "paradox" are discussed. The meterstick contraction is mathematically explained. (KR)

Six articles discuss the work of Michael Faraday, a chemist whose work revolutionized physics and led directly to both classical field and relativity theory. The scientist as a young man, the electromagnetic experiments of Faraday, his search for the gravelectric effect, his work on optical glass, his laboratory notebooks, and his creative use of…

Watching a video often results in passive learning and does not actively engage students. In this study, a class of 20 HSC Physics students were introduced to a teaching model that incorporated active learning principles with the watching of a video that explored the Meissner Effect and superconductors. Students would watch short sections of the…

In the last several decades the image of the leaky pipeline has become commonplace as a metaphor for the loss of women and minorities to the physics enterprise at every stage, from high school to the most advanced positions in academia. At the 2007 Winter AAPT meeting in Seattle, however, the AAPT Committee on Women in Physics sponsored a session…

Energy is a critical concept that is used in analyzing physical phenomena and is often an essential starting point in physics problem-solving. It is a global concept that appears throughout the physics curriculum in mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and modern physics. Energy is also at the heart of descriptions of processes in biology,…