Students should have a strong conceptual understanding of the connection between force and acceleration before they start working with applications and problem solving. This has been discussed in the literature. During these days of flipped classroom instruction, an at-home activity could be especially valuable. I will describe an experiment with…

This study reports the participation of 13 secondary science teachers in informal support networks and how that participation was associated with their nature of science (NOS) teaching practices 2 to 5 years after having graduated from the same science teacher education program. The nine teachers who participated in informal support networks…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection in Artificial Intelligence Tools in Physics Teaching and Physics Education Research.] Artificial intelligence-based chatbots are increasingly influencing physics education because of their ability to interpret and respond to textual and visual inputs. This study evaluates the performance of two large…

Building scientific arguments is a central ability for all scientists regardless of their specific domain. In organic chemistry, building arguments is a necessary skill to estimate reaction processes in consideration of the reactivities of reaction centres or the chemical and physical properties. Moreover, building arguments for multiple reaction…

Considering students' increasing lack of interest and motivation for science subjects, it becomes almost imperative to introduce different methodology approaches in classrooms. Besides, decontextualized science teaching, where hands on activities are not sufficiently taken into account, can make the students attitude toward science-learning even…

Science educators generally accept that the nature of science (NOS) should have a prominent place in school science curricula. This study highlights the special opportunity offered by the history of science (HOS) as a context for teaching NOS, by revealing HOS instructors' perspectives. We collected data from 15 instructors at 11 institutions who…

Introductory mechanics is an obligatory course for many disciplines outside of physics and the failure rate is often high. Even the students who pass the course often fail to achieve the main learning goal: The conceptual knowledge required for modeling situations with physics principles. In many cases, this is due to inefficient learning…

Since the 1980s, studies have increasingly shown that traditional teaching causes a deterioration in students' conceptions of physics and of learning physics. The present study examined the influence of an intervention on high school students' conceptions of physics and of learning physics. The intervention included two components: a unique design…

An online HTML5 Fourier synthesizer app is provided that allows students to manipulate sixteen harmonics and construct periodic waves. Students can set the amplitudes and phases for each harmonic, seeing the resulting waveforms and hearing the sounds. Five waveform presets are included: sine, triangle, square, ramp (sawtooth), and pulse train. The…

In most high school physics classes, gravity is described as an attractive force between two masses as formulated by Newton over 300 years ago. Einstein's general theory of relativity implies that gravitational effects are instead the result of a "curvature" of space-time. However, explaining why things fall without resorting to Newton's…

In this paper, we derive an equation for the distance covered by a free-falling body as a function of time valid for any arbitrary distance. The equation, interestingly, yields exactly the time according to the Kepler's third law in the limiting case of very large distance compared to the radius of the Earth. The equation, of course, reduces to…

Although laboratory work is considered a significant factor in helping students develop their science process skills and cultivate alternative knowledge construction, there are still gaps in the selection, integration, and implementation of the basic elements in physics laboratories. In this study, three modified guided discovery and conventional…

This study discusses how textbook educational approaches concerning Le Châtelier's principle (LCP) may hinder student comprehension and prediction of chemical equilibrium disturbances. Firstly, after summarising students' LCP erroneous assertions/explanations, a categorisation of the potential barriers that may originate student misunderstandings…

This article provides a critical commentary on the recently released learning programme, "Climate Change: Prepare Today, Live Well Tomorrow" (Climate Change programme). The Climate Change programme is sorely needed in this time of climate emergency and we believe it to be a great start in guiding teachers in this important work. Here we…

In this article, a series of activities on explicit teaching of specific aspects of the 'nature of science' are presented. The authors explore teaching the nature of science through inquiry-based activities on electric circuits. The activities concern classification of objects as conductors or insulators and took place in three classes of 4th…