Physics Education
Since 1984 INFN scientists performing experiments at Fermilab have been running a two month summer training program for Italian students at the lab. In 1984 the program involved only a few physics students from the Pisa group, but it was…
The summer training program for Italian undergraduate and graduate students at the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory of Fermilab (Batavia, Illinois, USA) started in 1984 as a 2 month training program for Italian undergraduate students…
The monograph defines the conditions of training of future teachers in natural sciences and mathematics by means of computer simulation, developed a structural-functional model of training, selected socio-constructivist forms of…
Teaching about measurements and showing examples of instruments' non-ideal behaviour are important in physics education. Digital multimeter input impedance analysis is perfect for this, since these instruments are easily available, precise…
Although several optical techniques have been recently developed in order to overcome the resolution limit in microscopy, the imaging of sub-wavelength features is still a real challenge. In practise, super-resolution techniques remain…
We adopted survival analysis for the viewing durations of massive open online courses. The hazard function of empirical duration data is dominated by a bathtub curve and has the Lindy effect in its tail. To understand the evolutionary…
Recently, there have been several national calls to emphasize physics practices and skills within laboratory courses. In this paper, we describe the redesign and implementation of a two-course sequence of algebra-based physics laboratories…
Halfway between the experiment and the focus group, between the quiz and a game, we have experienced a new format to "focus" on sustainability and the fundamental laws of thermodynamics and its principles. Concepts as reversibility,…
Since 2006 a small group of researchers from the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics started to realized one of the first European Researchers' Night in Europe: a one night-event, supported by the European Commission, that falls…
Many professional physicists do not fully understand the implications of the Einstein equivalence principle of general relativity. Consequently, many are unaware of the fact that special relativity is fully capable of handling accelerated…
A paper summarizing the discussions that happened during the Physics Education Research (POC in PERC) parallel sessions at the 2017 and 2018 Physics Education Research Conference (PERC).
Models of physical systems are used to explain and predict experimental results and observations. The Modeling Framework for Experimental Physics describes the process by which physicists revise their models to account for the newly…
Physics education researchers (PER) often analyze student data with single-level regression models (e.g., linear and logistic regression). However, education datasets can have hierarchical structures, such as students nested within courses,…
The mechanical behaviour of two types of pasta (noodles and bucatini) was studied in a cantilever-loaded-at-the-end experimental setup. One end of each pasta was fixed while the other end was submitted to forces perpendicular to the line…
We examined how introductory physics students' attitudes and approaches to problem solving compare to those of introductory astronomy students, using a previously validated survey, the Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving (AAPS)…
Given a physics scenario, different problem types presenting that scenario in various ways can emphasize different instructional goals. In this investigation, we examined the views of physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) about the…
Framing affects how students interpret, approach, and accomplish tasks. Little is known, however, about how students frame tasks in physics labs. During the first lab of a sequence designed to teach students about modeling and critical…
A recent physics challenge shows a circuit, where a voltmeter is connected in series. Indeed, real voltmeters have finite input resistance, therefore one may think that they can be used as resistors. In addition, voltmeters measure the…
We present a low-cost, dual-probe position sensor in a mechanical resonance experiment suitable for deployment in large lab courses with multiple stations. The motion of the two ends of a driven, damped spring oscillator is recorded with…
The value of multiple choice questions (MCQs) in seeking large-scale, high-stakes, educational assessment is widely established. Students' responses to test items with a multiple-choice question format enable assess the extent of students'…