Describes experiments that utilize unsophisticated equipment to measure the elastic constants of thin flexible strips of material. The attainable accuracy is limited by the measurement of the material's thickness. (MLH)

Discusses the results of a physics minicourse program for college students; describes how to initiate such a program, including choice of topics, publicizing the courses, and course contents. (MLH)

The problem of determining the distance that an object fell is analyzed. (DT)

Describes a physics experiment in single and multiple slit diffraction and interference phenomena that illustrates the existence of diffraction gratings in many common objects. (MLH)

The purpose of this paper is to present results of the study conducted to explore students' expectations related to development of student interest in physics and physics lesson. The concept of interest is the affective description of this connection between person and objects. Even though interest is assumed to be important for its role in…

This document lists annotated references of gender issues in physics and science education. (KHR)

This roster contains detailed information from the annual Survey of Enrollments and Degrees. The report contains data reported by degree-granting astronomy departments in the United States for 1998-1999 introductory astronomy course enrollments, 1998-1999 degrees, and fall 1999 undergraduate majors and graduate student enrollments. In the United…

This roster contains detailed data from the annual Survey of Enrollments and Degrees conducted in the 2001-2002 academic year. The roster contains data reported by physics departments in the United States for their 2000-2001 introductory course enrollments, 2000-2001 degrees, and fall 2001 undergraduate major and graduate student enrollments. Of…

By extracting all authors of articles published in the 3 most popular international journals of physics education for a period of ten years, some collaboration (co-authorship) networks have been constructed based on the criterion that if any two authors have published a paper together, they are labeled as connected or linked by research…

A detailed analysis was conducted of all master's degree programs in physics in the United States, including those that offer a master's as their highest physics program and those that have a master's program in parallel with the Ph.D. program. Data were collected from colleges and universities with master's degree programs and through phone…

This report focuses on graduates in physics who did not earn any degrees after their bachelor's degree and who are not primarily students. The report is based on data from a sample of physics bachelors between December 1998 and the summer of 1999. About 1,200 respondents, out of a potential 2,400, supplied the information. At 5 to 8 years after…

The purpose of this resource letter is to provide an overview of research on the learning and teaching of physics. The references have been selected to meet the needs of two groups of physicists engaged in physics education. The first is the growing number whose field of scholarly inquiry is (or might become) physics education research. The second…

The paper deals with the problems of engineering education with special emphasis on mechanical engineering. The study is based on the situation at the end of the 20th century when the rapid development of information technologies stresses the need of a global context for all educational problems. The current social, economic and technical trends,…

A study was conducted to identify local item dependence (LID) in the context-dependent item sets used in an examination prepared for use in an introductory university physics class and to assess the effects of LID on estimates of the reliability and standard error of measurement. Test scores were obtained for 487 students in the physics class. The…

This paper presents a teaching strategy based on showing students a two-part demonstration then asking them to predict the outcome and explain their predictions. The teaching approach focuses on students developing an understanding of the value of analyzing a situation in terms of basic concepts. Students also learn the advantage of simple…