The purpose of this article is to give the intelligible procedure for undergraduate students to grasp proof of the fact that the magnetic field outside the hollow superconducting sphere (superconducting shell) coincides with the field of a point magnetic dipole both when an uniform external magnetic field is applied as when a ferromagnetic sphere…

More is known now than ever about the range and nature of alternate conceptions that children hold, but educators are not yet sure of the best way to support effective development of children's scientific understanding. The coherence of science as perceived by the student matters in learning. That is, what the child brings to a learning task can…

This article describes an approach in which students develop and apply definitions prior to their formal introduction to new vocabulary. The example given is an inquiry-based lesson on geologic principles. This approach is illustrated with a lesson that has been used with high school Earth science students on the principles of stratigraphy, though…

Stirling's approximation to ln "n"! is typically introduced to physical chemistry students as a step in the derivation of the statistical expression for the entropy. However, naive application of this approximation leads to incorrect conclusions. In this article, the problem is first illustrated using a familiar "toy…

Students in college-level mathematics classes can build the differential equations of an energy balance model of the Earth's climate themselves, from a basic understanding of the background science. Here we use variable albedo and qualitative analysis to find stable and unstable equilibria of such a model, providing a problem or perhaps a…

As part of a biomechanics course aimed at both upper-division Biology and Physics majors, this laboratory exercise introduces students to the ingenious ways in which organisms vary the composition and form of support and defensive structures such as bone and shell to maximize their strength while minimizing the energetic cost needed to produce…

Central to our understanding of learning is the relationship between various tools and technologies and the structuring of disciplinary subject matter. One of the staples of early science education curriculum is the use of electrical circuit toolkits to engage students in broader discussions of energy. Traditionally, these concepts are introduced…

Figuring out the difference between liquids and solids seems like a silly question at first. After all, don't we know that liquids do not have a definite shape and therefore assume the shape of their container? Place a drop of water in a short glass. Does this water take the shape of the glass? Nope. It just sits there on the bottom of the…

This "Science note" examines the bromination of phenol, a reaction that is commonly taught at A-level and IB (International Baccalaureate) as an example of electrophilic substitution. Phenol undergoes bromination with bromine or bromine water at room temperature. A white precipitate of 2,4,6-tribromophenol is rapidly formed. This…

Numbers and space are tightly linked--a phenomenon that is referred to as the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect (Dehaene, Bossini, & Giraux, 1993). The present study investigates how quickly and flexibly the behavioral impact of such spatial-numerical associations can be controlled. Participants performed a parity…

Students often wrestle unsuccessfully with the task of correctly calculating momentum probability densities and have difficulty in understanding their interpretation. In the case of a particle in an "infinite" potential well, its momentum can take values that are not just those corresponding to the particle's quantised energies but…

Variations in the isotopic composition of elements have been widely used to study earth's climate, biosphere, and interior, and more recently to track the fate of contaminants. Within the broad range of elements that exhibit measureable isotopic variations, metal stable isotopes are increasingly applied across the biological, geological,…

This "Science Note" presents a study by Christopher Talbot and Lydia Yap, who teach IB Chemistry at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), Republic of Singapore, to pre-university students. Pre-university students may postulate the correlation between the magnitude of the lattice enthalpy compound and its melting point, since both…

This investigation evaluated the effectiveness of using peer tutors to teach a chained leisure skill (i.e., UNO card game) to three middle school students with disabilities using a simultaneous prompting procedure within a multiple probe design. The investigation also assessed whether the students with disabilities would acquire four unrelated…

A rattleback is a well-known physics toy that has a preferred direction of rotation. If it is spun about a vertical axis in the "wrong" direction, it will slow down, start rocking from end to end, and then spin in the opposite (i.e. preferred) direction. Many articles have been written about rattlebacks. Some are highly mathematical and…