Newton's cradle, a device consisting of a chain of steel balls suspended in alignment, has been used extensively in physics teaching to demonstrate the principles of conservation of momentum and kinetic energy in elastic collisions. The apparent simplicity of the device allows one to test commonly hold views regarding the intuitive understanding…

Sociocognitive conflict has been used as a teaching strategy which may contribute to change students' conceptions about science concepts. The present paper aims at investigating the structure of the dialogic argumentation developed by students, when they are involved in science teaching sequence that have been designed to change their conceptions…

A discrepant event is a happening contrary to our current beliefs. Discrepant events are said to be useful in clarifying concepts. This is one of the interesting features of current theories of constructivism. The story of Mpemba's ice cream is quite well known, but it is the educational aspects of the experiment that are of interest in this…