Related papers: Physics Masterclasses in Africa and the World
In this companion paper, we explore the use of isomorphic problem pairs (IPPs) to assess introductory physics students' ability to solve and successfully transfer problem-solving knowledge from one context to another in mechanics. We call…
Quantum mechanics can seem like a departure from everyday experience of the physical world, but constructivist theories assert that learners build new ideas from their existing ones. To explore how students can navigate this tension, we…
Homework in introductory physics represents an important part of a student's learning experience; therefore choosing the manner in which homework is presented merits investigation. We performed three rounds of clinical trials comparing the…
High-stakes exams play a large role in determining an introductory physics student's final grade. These exams have been shown to be inequitable, often to the detriment of students identifying with groups historically marginalized in…
This Physics Today article discusses why the physics community needs to embrace the challenge of educating students with diverse educational backgrounds to meet future research and workforce demands and outlines some of the efforts…
We describe an undergraduate course where physics students are asked to conceive an outreach project of their own. The course alternates between the project conception and teachings about pedagogy and outreach, and ends in a public show. We…
High Energy Particle Physics (HEP) faces challenges over the coming decades with a need to attract young people to the field and STEM careers, as well as a need to recognize, promote and sustain those in the field who are making important…
During the past several years the authors have developed a new approach to the teaching of Physical Science, a general education course typically found in the curricula of nearly every college and university. This approach, called `Physics…
In this work, I present an automatic system for the evaluation of closed-type exercises in physics at the high school level or in the first year of a degree where physics is a mandatory course. It is expected that this will allow students…
There is a growing consensus that physics majors need to learn computational skills, but many departments are still devoid of computation in their physics curriculum. Some departments may lack the resources or commitment to create a…
This article tells the story of the founding of the Compass Project at UC Berkeley and describes its impacts. The Compass Project is a self-formed group of graduate and undergraduate students in the physical sciences. Its goals are to…
To teach the topic of Dark Matter in Galaxies to undergraduate and PhD students is not easy, one reason being that the scientific community has not converged yet to a generally shared knowledge. We argue that the teaching of this topic and…
The lack of diversity in physics and astronomy PhD programmes is well known but has not improved despite decades of efforts. PhD bridge programmes provide an asset-based model to help overcome the societal and disciplinary obstacles to…
Smartphone-integrated physics laboratories (SmartIPLs) have emerged as a cost-effective and scalable approach that offers new opportunities for enhancing introductory physics education. By leveraging the sensing, imaging, and computing…
Since 2010, the Yale physics department has offered a novel calculus-based introductory physics for the life science (IPLS) sequence, that re-imagines the IPLS syllabus to include a selection of biologically and medically relevant topics,…
MEMICS provides a forum for doctoral students interested in applications of mathematical and engineering methods in computer science. Besides a rich technical programme (including invited talks, regular papers, and presentations), MEMICS…
The purpose of these lectures is to describe the state of affairs in modern particle physics to young physicists who do not specialize in this subject.
We report on research carried out to improve teaching and student engagement in the introductory astronomy course at the University of Cape Town. This course is taken by a diverse range of students, including many from educationally…
As 2005, the International Year of Physics, comes to an end, two physicists working primarily in geophysical research reflect on how geophysics is not an applied physics. Although geophysics has certainly benefited from progress in physics…
The physics learning is very important to techniques teaching and the engineers upbringing. However, there is evidence that science classes from elementary school through to university are generally failing to provide most students with an…