A spectrogram of a singer's vibrato presents a striking way to introduce students to frequency, Fourier spectra, and modulation. Vibrato is discussed from the perspectives of the physicist and the musician. A dramatic spectrogram is included where coauthor soprano Michel suppresses her vibrato so that acoustical characteristics can be compared to…

A new program, ECEP2D, for simulating the one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) patterns of the gel electrophoresis of a protein after it has been digested by one or more enzymes is introduced. With ECEP2D, students can gain deeper insights into gel electrophoresis by performing hands-on simulations. For example, students can visualize how…

For more than 10 years, I had taught Kepler's laws and the law of universal gravity without a corresponding experiment. I sometimes remember how these topics were difficult for me in my high school days to understand. At that time, I thought that one of the reasons for my difficulty was that these phenomena cannot be visualized using physical…

This study investigated how modeling in chemistry affect second language learners' descriptions of polymeric concepts. The aim was to investigate how chemistry discussions mediated by representations, contribute to second language students' development in the language of chemistry. The study took place in three multilingual upper secondary…

Chemistry teaching learning is considered as difficult and boring. The definition of play, based on authors such as Freud, Piaget and Vigotsky, is presented as a stimulating, pleasant and voluntary activity that in the student facilitates his learning and encompasses the different facets of his physical, psychic, social and emotional development.…

The objective of this work was to evaluate the implementation of a metavisual strategy for students to revise and self-regulate concepts arising in a study of a chemical reaction between ions. For this purpose, two chemistry education undergraduate students at a Brazilian public university carried out an investigative activity, involving…

The limitations of bacterial visualization media make bacteria consider as abstract and difficult material to study. Furthermore, the implementation of bacteria material and the integration of Islamic values are difficult to teach. This research aimed at developing and validating the BSB (Bacterial Set Box) media containing "fiqh al…

Gravitational lensing is an interesting phenomenon in astronomy and is most typically given rise to by galaxies. The majority of the matter in a galaxy is thought to be dark matter, and the galactic gravitational lensing effect is mainly caused by dark matter halos. In gravitational lensing-related demonstrations in physics education, the feet of…

A teaching laboratory experiment is described where students prepare in vitro transcription reactions of a fluorescent RNA aptamer, named Broccoli, and observe the production of the aptamer in real-time on a fluorescence plate reader. Alternate visualization methods with minimal costs are also described for laboratories lacking this…

Scientific modeling (SM) is a core practice of science and an important component of scientific literacy. Supporting students in developing the competence to construct, use, evaluate, and revise models is hence of particular relevance. While research has shown that spatial visualization (SV), a core component of spatial ability, is correlated with…

When students of the of the physical sciences transition from school to university, they discover that knowledge of calculus is as vital as arithmetic, and that there is precious little useful information written without calculus. However, the lack of calculus in pre-university physics studies persists, especially in its application to the…

At an advanced stage of learning quantum chemistry, undergraduate students usually encounter simple Hückel-molecular-orbital (HMO) theory, whose primitive approach gives very useful insight into the electronic structure of p-conjugated molecules. However, on one hand, computational HMO software, when programmed without using molecular symmetry,…

Facile visualization of biomolecules is an essential component of the undergraduate biochemistry curriculum. In the past, a number of tools have been used to display biomolecules. More recently, the advent of greater accessibility to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) programs has created a new mechanism to visualize biomolecules.…

The understanding of many aspects of astronomy is closely linked with relativity and the finite speed of light, yet relativity is generally not discussed in great detail during planetarium shows for the general public. One reason may be the difficulty to visualize these phenomena in a way that is appropriate for planetariums; another may be their…

In Benjamin Franklin's one fluid theory of electrification, ordinary unelectrified matter consisted of a matrix of matter suffused with a certain amount of "electrical fluid." Electrical effects were due to an excess or deficit of electrical fluid, hence the terms positive and negative. Before the development of a modern view of the…