Successfully creating and implementing interdisciplinary curricula in introductory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses is challenging, but doing so is increasingly more important as current problems in science become more interdisciplinary. Opening up the silos between science disciplines and overcoming common…

This paper describes a physics laboratory exercise for determining the coefficient of static friction between two surfaces. The circular motion of a coin placed on the surface of a rotating turntable has been studied. For this purpose, the motion is recorded with a high-speed digital video camera recording at 240 frames s[superscript-1], and the…

Comparing two objects falling together is a small-scale version of Galileo's classical experiment, demonstrating the equivalence between gravitational and inertial mass. We present here investigations by a group of ten-year-olds, who used iPads to record the drops. The movie recordings were essential in the follow-up discussions, enabling the…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between pre-service science teachers' Field Dependent or Field Independent (FD/FI) cognitive styles and the application of degrees of naive impetus theory. The sample consisted of 122 pre-service science teachers (97 females and 25 males) who were enrolled in the…

Helping students develop an understanding of how to interpret experimental data trends is an important part of the introductory physics laboratory. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues have lamented that too many of their students do this poorly. This is a common refrain, and past research has already revealed student difficulties with…

This research examined whether the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) of physics and science teachers is at a sufficient level and whether the TPACK level affected the academic achievements of the students. In the research, a mixed method was used quantitatively and qualitatively. In the quantitative part of the research, Provus'…

Substantial variation has been observed across an international series of studies examining the consistency of students' explanations of force and the most common meanings of force apparent in those explanations. On the surface, the variations among studies might be attributed to differences at the national level, but the studies also demonstrate…

Peer Instruction (PI) is an evidence based pedagogy commonly used in undergraduate physics instruction. When asked questions designed to test conceptual understanding, it has been observed that the proportion of students choosing the correct answer increases following peer discussion; however, relatively little is known about what takes place…

The traditional lab report is known to create several pedagogical shortcomings in the introductory physics course, particularly with regard to promoting student engagement and encouraging quality writing. This paper discusses the use of a "letter home" written to a non-physicist as an alternative to lab reports that creates a more…

Each fall, the Statistical Research Center conducts the "Survey of Enrollments and Degrees," which asks physics and astronomy departments to provide information concerning the number of students they have enrolled and counts of recent degree recipients. In connection with this survey, the names and contact information for their recent…

Collaborative inquiry learning environments, such as "The Tutorials in Physics Sensemaking," are designed to provide students with opportunities to partake in the authentic disciplinary practices of argumentation and sensemaking. Through these practices, groups of students in tutorial can build shared conceptual understandings of the…

Many high school and introductory college physics courses make use of mousetrap car projects and competitions as a way of providing an engaging hands-on learning experience incorporating Newton's laws, conversion of potential to kinetic energy, dissipative forces, and rotational mechanics. Presented here is a simple analytical and finite element…

Ray diagrams offer a powerful framework for understanding and characterizing many properties of optical systems, such as images and magnifications. However, this construction also introduces many conceptual hurdles for students. The idea of representing the propagation of waves by means of a light ray, which is a line or curve perpendicular to the…

Students commonly find the second semester of introductory physics to be more challenging than the first, probably due to the mechanical intuition we acquire just by moving around. For most students, there is no similar comfort with electricity or magnetism. In an effort to combat this confusion, we decided to examine simple electric circuits with…

The atmosphere is an envelope of compressible gases that surrounds Earth. Because of its compressibility and nonuniform heating by the Sun, it is in constant motion. The atmosphere exerts pressure on Earth's surface, but that pressure is in constant flux. This experiment allows students to directly measure atmospheric pressure by measuring the…