This column provides background science information for elementary teachers. This month's issue takes a deeper look at the four known forces in the universe.

"What we don't understand, we explain to each other" was Robert Oppenheimer's 1948 description of theoretical physics as a profession. Because the phrase connects research, teaching, and learning, it seemed the right approach for the talk I gave to the AAPT [American Association of Physics Teachers] on receiving the 2013 J.D. Jackson…

Many introductory and nanotechnology textbooks discuss the operation of various microscopes including atomic force (AFM), scanning tunneling (STM), and scanning electron microscopes (SEM). In a nanotechnology laboratory class, students frequently utilize microscopes to obtain data without a thought about the detailed operation of the tool itself.…

Barlow's wheel has been a favorite demonstration since its invention by Peter Barlow (1776-1862) in 1822. In the form shown in Fig. 1, it represents the first electric motor. The interaction between the electric current passing from the axle of the wheel to the rim and the magnetic field produced by the U-magnet produces a torque that turns…

Constructing ray diagrams to locate the image of an object formed by thin lenses and mirrors is a staple of many introductory physics courses at the high school and college levels, and has been the subject of some pedagogy-related articles. Our review of textbooks distributed in the United States suggests that the singular approach involves…

The calculation of the moment of inertia of an extended body, as presented in standard introductory-level textbooks, involves the evaluation of a definite integral--an operation often not fully mastered by beginners, let alone the conceptual difficulties it presents, even to the advanced student, in understanding and setting up the integral in the…

With my background in acting, stagecraft, and some knowledge of theatre history from high school and college, it was natural for me as a novice teacher to think about theatre as a metaphor for teaching. In this article I will discuss how over my career I conceived of teaching in terms of theatrical metaphors, and make a comparison with a common…

Despite a number of theories in circuit analysis, little is known about the behaviour of ideal equal voltage sources in parallel, connected across a resistive load. We neither have any theory that can predict the voltage source that provides the load current, nor is there any method to test it experimentally. In a series of experiments performed…

Anyone who has taught introductory physics should know that roughly a third of the students initially believe that any object at rest will remain at rest, whereas any moving body not propelled by applied forces will promptly come to rest. Likewise, about half of those uninitiated students believe that any object moving at a constant speed must be…

Many educators have utilized the phenomenon of the so-called "hydrostatic paradox" to actively engage students in classroom instructional activities related to hydrostatic equilibrium. Various approaches requiring different levels of mathematical knowledge have been proposed in the literature to provide students clear explanations of…

Many icebergs are vulnerable to capsizing. In doing so the gravitational potential energy of the ice is increased, while that of the displaced sea water is decreased. Applying the principle of the conservation of energy shows that by capsizing, there is also a net transfer of energy to the surrounding sea water. This will be a maximum for a…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] In the "standard" physics education research curriculum-development model, researchers are cast primarily as producers of curricula and instructors are cast primarily consumers, i.e., adopters and adapters. We illustrate a complementary model in…

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming valuable tools to help improve education, especially during teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. In this regard, we conducted this study to explore the usability of ICT tools in Physics taught courses. To collect data, we used classroom…

This empirical census study was a quasi-experimental analysis of certification level (primary vs. secondary) and in-field vs. out-of-field certification. The sample included chemistry teachers (n = 2312) and physics teachers (n = 1387) in New York State in 2011-12. Findings indicated that the number of out-of-field teachers was relatively low, but…

This multiple case study used the lens of identity to investigate how three beginning science teachers deal with practical work during their first two years of teaching careers in high school. In-depth data were collected from multiple sources for the three participants and data analysis was focused on the interactions between personal,…