Students experience current electricity every day in our wired world, yet the circuit problems that students work through in physics class can seem far removed from the common experience of switching on a light bulb. However, current electricity provides many opportunities to engage students in hands-on learning. Through circuit construction,…

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration--European Space Agency collaborative mission to test the feasibility of defending Earth from a catastrophic asteroid impact by using a spacecraft to deflect the asteroid away from the planet. Launched on Nov. 23, 2021, the DART spacecraft will intercept…

Discovering concepts through observation, exploration, and constructing scientific explanations of phenomena is best practice in science education. Instead of following lab procedures to verify a known answer or solution, involve students in the work of science. Begin by presenting a phenomenon to engage students in scientific inquiry and uncover…

This study aims to explore the mental models of students about suspending objects in liquid fluid. The study used a descriptive qualitative method and implemented cross-sectional approach. It involved 57 students from grade 5 of elementary school to fourth-year prospective physics teachers. The data collection used a test consisting of twenty-six…

Background and Context: Computational thinking and practices (CT|P) are key competencies for learners in science and engineering. For studies with young adolescents as participants, manifested research philosophies are sometimes inconsistent with societal pluralisms. Objective: Based on research literature from 2016 to early 2019 for CT|P in…

With the availability of educational digital data acquisition systems, it has also become possible in physics education to generate 'big' data sets by (a) measuring multiple variables simultaneously, (b) increasing the sample rate, (c) extending the measurement duration, or (d) choosing a combination among these three options. In the context of…

We have developed new rotors that can be classified into three groups by changing the rotors used in simple motors into various types. Group I has a semicircular shape rather than a perfect circle or square shape, group II has a structure consisting of several closed circles on one plane, and group III has a three-dimensional shape. We wanted to…

Design thinking has been propositioned to be interconnected to Dewey's notion of pragmatist inquiry and aesthetic experience. To address the need for empirical studies on design thinking in the classroom and add to our understanding of its characteristics, this study explored middle years' students' discourse as they worked through a design…

Energy is a disciplinary core idea and a cross-cutting concept in the K-12 Framework for Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). As numerous authors point out, the energy model in these standards emphasizes the connections between energy and systems. Using energy ideas to interpret or make sense of phenomena means…

The use of analogies is a well-known teaching strategy to bridge unfamiliar and familiar concepts. However, analogies may become ineffective if the familiar concept is not familiar anymore. For example, this may occur when we describe rotational sense as clockwise and counterclockwise, assuming students know how to read a clock with hour and…

The trajectory of a ball rolling across an inclined plane was recorded on video film to determine if it followed a parabolic path as others have suggested. The challenges in this case were (a) to determine the magnitude and direction of the friction force on the ball, (b) to determine the effect of the friction force on the trajectory and (c) to…

A 2.7 m long stringless pendulum was set up to measure the coefficient of rolling friction of various balls, at higher rolling speeds than usually observed with a short stringless pendulum. The arrangement is easy to set up and makes an impressive classroom demonstration as well as an interesting laboratory experiment.

A collision of one object with two or more objects is relatively complicated in general, but a simple example is provided by Newton's cradle since all the objects are identical and in line. In the present paper, an experiment is described where a heavy mallet collides head-on with two billiard balls. The two conservation equations indicate that…

An experiment is described where a pendulum bob was allowed to roll back and forth across an inclined plane. The period of oscillation is larger than that for oscillation in a vertical plane, in part because the effective value of "g" is reduced on an inclined plane. The experiment highlights the differences between all three common…

The chirality of chemicals is a well-known concept among undergraduates. The examples of chiral molecules in daily life are introduced to high school students as well. However, the chirality of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) remains unpopular in these groups. In this paper, a simple visualization of SWCNTs was first performed via paper…