Examines senior high school students' cognitive orientation toward scientific or social information, designated as information preference, and associated preferential reasoning modes when presented with an environmental issue concerning nuclear energy usage. Investigates the association of information preference variable with academic and personal…

Explores connections between naive epistemology and everyday instructional practice. Reviews examples of naive epistemologies as made up of fine-grained, context-sensitive resources. Presents strategies designed to help students tap those resources for learning introductory physics. Reflects on this work as an example of interplay between two…

Reports on a project investigating students' learning processes when video analysis and data logging practical work were used in a first-year undergraduate physics course. Suggests that students were motivated by the tasks and believed that these tasks helped them overall to understand physics concepts. Includes references. (CMK)

Introduces an activity in which students learn principles of force and motion, systems, and simple machines by exploring the best position of the dogs on the dashboard. Includes a sample lesson plan written in the five instructional models: (1) engagement; (2) exploration; (3) explanation; (4) elaboration; and (5) evaluation. (KHR)

Describes an interdisciplinary unit for upper elementary students that integrates science, geography, history, and mathematics in the study of spoons. Students determine the volume of each spoon by submerging it in a graduated cylinder of water and measuring the difference in water levels before and after submersion. Shows students that scientific…

Describes a method for using cardboard and paper to make a pump for blowing up balloons. Includes construction diagrams, suggestions for application, and comparison of this force pump with those made commercially. (DDR)

The deficiencies and distortions revealed in studies of public understanding of science, intuitive physics, nutritional myths and misunderstandings, and mental mapping of geographical space are defects in information transfer from the physical and intellectual realms to the subjective realms of individuals (Popper's three "Worlds").…

Investigates variation in knowledge construction in three disciplines--sociology, economics, and physics--by drawing on Halliday' s notion of "metaphenomenon." Specifically, the study analyzed the frequency and type of agentive elements in textbooks to find the extent to which knowledge in these disciplines is attributed to individual scholars,…

Mentions a few signs of the value of history for science education. Discusses some of the wider benefits that might ensue from bringing history into science. Provides examples from the fields of physics and chemistry. (DDR)

Investigates the relationship between traditional physics textbook problem solving and conceptual understanding. Reports that students had many of the well-known conceptual difficulties with basic mechanics and that there was little correlation between the number of problems solved and conceptual understanding. (Contains 21 references.)…

Explains a hands-on approach to teaching quantum mechanics that challenges the belief shared by many physics instructors that quantum mechanics is a very abstract subject that cannot be understood until students have learned much of the classical physics. (Contains 23 references.) (Author/YDS)

Sought to determine first-year physics students' approaches to learning, the intellectual demands of their exams (using Bloom's taxonomy), and correlations between the approach to learning, assessment demands, and student performance. Found that most students approached physics with the intention of memorizing formulae rather than understanding…

Three studies examined development of the perception of temporally unidirectional transformation, such as dropping blocks, with 3.5- to 6.5-year-olds who compared forward and backward videotapes of events or made individual judgments of what would happen if action were attempted. Findings indicated that even 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds recognized the…

Introduces an activity that focuses on Hooke's law to implement and furnish applications of linear equations and graphing in a physical situation. (KHR)

Offers a psychological role that external representations can play in the process of refining intuitive ideas into scientific knowledge. Presents an argument for this role through historical analysis of Galileo's ramp experiments, then through documentation of an innovative 6th grade classroom activity. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/YDS)