This study investigated the added value of real-time adaptive feedback on seventh graders' performances in tablet-based geometry learning. To isolate the effects of the medium (ie, tablet) from those of the feedback, three groups were compared: paper-and-pencil, pen-based tablet without feedback and pen-based tablet with feedback. The feedback was…

Low cost, open-source analytical instrumentation has the potential to increase educational outcomes for students and enable large-scale citizen science projects. Many of these instruments rely on smartphones to collect the data, mainly because they can effectively leverage a dramatic price-to-performance ratio of the optical sensors. However,…

While within a geometric repeating pattern, there is an identifiable core which is made up of objects that repeat in a predictable manner, a geometric growing pattern (also called visual or pictorial growing patterns in other curricula) "is a pattern that is made from a sequence of figures [or objects] that change from one term to the next in…

The aim of the present article is to focus on the operational aspects referring to the actions--strategies and on the defined modalities of establishing educational objectives/competences. In the achievement of our work a special attention has been paid to the operational aspects of the learning process of the optical phenomena. There were carried…

In a typical high school course, the complex physics of collisions is broken up into the dichotomy of perfectly elastic versus completely inelastic collisions. Real-life collisions, however, generally fall between these two extremes. An accurate treatment is still possible, as demonstrated in an investigation of coin collisions. Simple…

Both, virtual and printed 3D crystal models can help students and teachers deal with chemical education topics such as symmetry and point groups. In the present paper, two freely downloadable tools (interactive PDF files and a mobile app) are presented as examples of the application of 3D design to study point-symmetry. The use of 3D printing to…

Much of the mathematical reasoning employed in the typical introductory physics course can be traced to Pythagorean roots planted over two thousand years ago. Besides obvious examples involving the Pythagorean theorem, I draw attention to standard physics problems and derivations which often unknowingly rely upon the Pythagoreans' work on…

The Dirac belt trick is often employed in physics classrooms to show that a 2n rotation is not topologically equivalent to the absence of rotation whereas a 4n rotation is, mirroring a key property of quaternions and their isomorphic cousins, spinors. The belt trick can leave the student wondering if a real understanding of quaternions and spinors…

Ronald J. Gillespie, the inventor of the Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) model, relates how his career as researcher in Christopher Ingold's laboratories started. Gillespie developed a passion for chemistry and chemical education, searching for more appropriate and interesting ways to transmit the essential knowledge and enthusiasm…

This paper discusses the basic concepts of reflection and its related concepts in optics. It aims at providing examples on how to apply the principle of reflection in geometry. Explorations of the concepts involved via dynamic geometry software are also included.