Physics Education
This research was a qualitative transcendental phenomenological exploration of astronomy identity formation among astronomy majors and physics majors engaged in astronomy research. Participants (N=10), all of whom identified with…
The friction force, friction coefficients and the effects on the dynamics of particles, bodies and systems, are fundamental themes in university physics of the first cycles and also in general physics courses of upper secondary education in…
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has become an essential technology in the realm of secure communication, with applications ranging from secure data transmission to quantum networks. This paper presents a simple, compact, and cost-effective…
To give teenagers a new, everyday perspective on STEM topics, we use particle physics as our main topic to engage young students. Our strategy is designed to demystify particle physics, making it more accessible and attractive early in high…
Assigning course grades to students requires obtaining accurate measures of the students' understanding and knowledge of the topic. The induced stress from a traditional summative assessment is known to negatively impact student grades,…
We report a case study where an existing materials science course was modified to include numerical simulation projects on the micromagnetic behavior of materials. The Ubermag micromagnetic simulation software package is used in order to…
This article outlines a comprehensive redesign of an introductory physics laboratory course aimed at promoting active student engagement, enhancing scientific experimental skills and the development of expert-like attitudes. The redesign…
During the process of teaching the concept of derivative, it is common and natural to refer to geometric interpretations, such as the use of the tangent line and the maximum and minimum points of a function, to illustrate the scope of the…
We present the Cosmic Piano, an innovative outreach tool designed to detect muons from air showers produced by cosmic rays colliding with the atmosphere. The Cosmic Piano consists of scintillator-based modules with avalanche photodiodes…
The major difficulty when one teaches about non-inertial reference frames in undergraduate courses on Classical Mechanics is to find an intuitive way to derive the Coriolis acceleration. Indeed, there is a factor of 2 in the formula for the…
Quantum computing is an exciting field with high disruptive potential, but very difficult to access. For this reason, many approaches to teaching quantum computing are being developed worldwide. This always raises questions about the…
The flipped classroom model has been widely acknowledged as a practical pedagogical approach to enhancing student engagement and learning. However, it faces challenges such as improving student interaction with learning content and peers,…
Educators are more than workers within educational systems; they are stewards of educational systems. They must analyze student performance data, identify patterns that inform targeted interventions and personalized learning plans,…
The process of constructing knowledge is typically taught to students by having them reproduce established results (e.g., homework problems). An alternative pedagogical strategy is to illustrate this process using an open problem, such as…
Science communication skills are considered essential learning objectives for undergraduate physics students. However, high enrollment and limited class resources present significant barriers to providing students ample opportunities to…
Peer-customer is a mechanism to pair student teams with customers in hands-on curriculum courses. Each student pitches a problem they want someone else in the class to solve for them. The use of peer-customers provides practical and…
Physics, like many scientific disciplines, has long struggled with attracting and retaining a diverse population and fostering inclusivity. While there have been improvements in addressing equity issues within physics, significant…
The global transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy production is a major challenge. We present an innovative solution by utilizing smartphone light sensors to measure direct normal solar irradiance, the primary component of…
A magnetic-mechanical oscillating system consists of two identical leaf springs, a non-magnetic base, and some magnets. The leaf springs are fixed at the bottom to the non-magnetic base, while the magnet is attached to the top of the leaf…
Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference is a quantum optics laboratory experiment that has recently become more accessible to undergraduate students. The experiment consists of two identical photons simultaneously entering a non-polarizing beam…