In this article we consider the well-known demonstration of friction by two interleaved books. We consider a factor that has not been part of the popular explanation--atmospheric pressure. We provide three control experiments to demonstrate the role of atmospheric pressure in the two-book experiment and an additional simple demonstration of the…

Science continuously interacts with the social environment. Science develops with social needs, and society develops and changes with scientific advances. These changes and developments may cause dilemmas in society. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the improvements among pre-service science teachers in terms of socio-scientific…

The paper reports about a study that examines changes in teachers' incorporation of epistemic practices in their design of engineering lessons and compares them to their views about the nature of engineering knowledge across 100 hours of professional development. Nineteen K-8 teachers in the USA, who were new to teaching engineering as part of a…

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the common knowledge construction model (CKCM)-based instruction on academic achievement and 7th grade students' views about the nature of science (NOS) presented in electrical energy unit at schools of different socio-economic levels. In accordance with this purpose, three secondary…

Adopting an explicit and reflective approach to the teaching of the history and philosophy of science is useful in promoting high school students' understanding of the nature of science. Whereas the history of science is usually signposted clearly in the school science curriculum, the philosophy of science is considered to be embedded in and…

This study aims to determine the knowledge levels in the Nature and History of Science course of the prospective teachers studying in the science education program and their views following the course. Six interview questions were asked to the pre-service teachers in the science education program about the Nature and History of Science course.…

An important step in learning to use math in science is learning to see symbolic equations not just as calculational tools, but as ways of expressing fundamental relationships among physical quantities, of coding conceptual information, and of organizing physics knowledge structures. In this paper, I propose "anchor equations" as a…

A new experiment based on phase inversion of Pickering emulsions was carried out in a physical chemistry course. The emulsions were stabilized by surfactant-modified SiO[subscript 2] particles. As the concentration of surfactant increased, the emulsions changed from oil-in-water type (O/W) to water-in-oil type (W/O) type, and then reverted to be…

In developing and modifying a course called "Intuitive Quantum Physics" for nonscience majors, several social and theoretical commitments informed our design decisions. We believed that the goal of a general education course should not be acquiring content knowledge alone, but more generally developing an approach to thinking…

Investigation of the kinetics of phosphorescence decay is a suitable learning task in studying the formal kinetics, and also properties of crystal phosphors. Kinetics of phosphorescence decay of crystal phosphors can be experimentally investigated at home as part of distance learning, using a conventional digital photo camera and a luminescent…

An application for visualizing the dynamic properties of an equimolar binary mixture of isotropic reactive particles is presented. By introducing a user selectable choice for the activation energy, the application is useful to demonstrate qualitatively that the reaction rate depends on the above choice and on temperature. The application is based…

Mechanobiology is an interdisciplinary field that aims to understand how physical forces impact biological systems. Enhancing our knowledge of mechanobiology has become increasingly important for understanding human disease and developing novel therapeutics. There is a societal need to teach diverse students principles of mechanobiology so that we…

This article is a response to María del Mar Aragón, José Antonio Acevedo-Díaz and Antonio García-Carmona's article, which investigated pre-service teachers' understandings of epistemic and non-epistemic aspects of the nature of science (NOS) based on the historical case study of Ignaz Semmelweis and childbed fever. We situate the study in…

The role of work and mechanical energy in classical relativity has been a subject of renewed interest in this publication. Here we present a problem that illustrates the relationship between impulse and kinetic energy for a rocket-powered object that can also change its gravitational potential energy. The same introductory physics principles lead…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are an explicit document that articulates our pedagogical practices in K-12 science instruction for the United States. The document is an excellent work that describes pedagogy and road maps for building coherence of science principles and student understanding of the Nature of Science. The prescient…