Physics Education
Cherenkov detectors are in use today in small experiments as well as modern ones as those at the LHC. This short note is about the construction of a small Cherenkov detector with limited resources, which could be used to observe the cosmic…
The students are introduced to navigation in general and the longitude problem in particular. A few videos provide insight into scientific and historical facts related to the issue. Then, the students learn in two steps how longitude can be…
In most physical sciences, students from underrepresented minority (URM) groups constitute a small percentage of earned degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Bridge programs can serve as an initiative to increase the number of…
Physics and physics education in the United States suffer from severe (and, in some cases, worsening) underrepresentation of Black, Latina/o, and Native people of all genders and women of all races and ethnicities. This underrepresentation…
The problem of fundamental units is discussed in the context of achievements of both theoretical physics and modern metrology. On one hand, due to fascinating accuracy of atomic clocks, the traditional macroscopic standards of metrology…
Students' difficulties in quantum mechanics may be the result of unproductive framing and not a fundamental inability to solve the problems or misconceptions about physics content. We observed groups of students solving quantum mechanics…
Tiered assessment is a differentiated assessment strategy where students can choose to attempt advanced assessment tasks. We discuss the use of tiered assessment in second and third year electromagnetics courses.
In the last years many studies examined the consistency of students' answers in a variety of contexts. Some of these papers tried to develop more detailed models of the consistency of students' reasoning, or to subdivide a sample of…
As part of ongoing investigations into student learning in advanced undergraduate courses, we have developed a conceptual assessment tool for upper-division electrodynamics (E&M II): the Colorado UppeR-division ElectrodyNamics Test…
Wiedemann-Franz law is a prediction of electronic theory of electric and thermal conductivity in metals, which states that a Lorenz ratio $L=\kappa/(\sigma T)$, where $\kappa$ is a thermal conductivity, $\sigma$ --- electric conductivity…
Model rockets have been employed in student projects, but very few papers in aerospace education offer concise summaries of activities at university-course levels. This paper aims to address this gap in the literature. The rockets used by…
In 2004 Denmark introduced a compulsory integrated science course the most popular upper secondary study program. One of the nation-wide course aims are for students to "achieve knowledge about some of the central scientific issues and…
Physics simulations are widely used to improve the learning process in science and engineering education. Deployment of a computational physics simulation/model is extremely complex given the fact that both knowledge and skills for the…
There has been an increased focus on the integration of practices into physics curricula, with a particular emphasis on integrating computation into the undergraduate curriculum of scientists and engineers. In this paper, we present a…
Details of the London pilot of the `Discovery Project' are presented, where university-based astronomers were given the chance to pass on some real and applied knowledge of astronomy to a group of selected secondary school pupils. It was…
The Kelvin Water Dropper was discovered by Lord Kelvin in 1867 and it works on the principle of electrostatic induction. A working model of Kelvin Water Dropper is fabricated in the workshop facility of Physical Research Laboratory,…
The entrance to public universities in Brazil depends on scores obtained by students in Enem, Brazilian National Assessment of High School Education. This exam consists of four multiple choice tests (Language, Maths, Natural and Human…
Virtual reality (VR) has long promised to revolutionize education, but with little follow-through. Part of the reason for this is the prohibitive cost of immersive VR headsets or caves. This has changed with the advent of smartphone-based…
While there exists a significant number of web interactives for introductory physics, students are almost never shown the computer code that generates these interactives even when the physics parts of these programs are relatively simple.…
This study investigates a group of high school students in a physics classroom interacting with a computer simulation that simulates the electrostatic interaction as a hockey game, the Electric Field Hockey. The activity featured in this…