In a famous 1960 paper, Wigner discussed "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences." I suggest that the effectiveness of mathematics in producing successful new theories and surprising discoveries is even more unreasonable than Wigner claimed. In this paper, I present several historical case studies to…

The language of physics is mathematics, and physics ideas, laws and models describing phenomena are usually represented in mathematical form. Therefore, an understanding of how to navigate between phenomena and the models representing them in mathematical form is important for a physics teacher so that the teacher can make physics understandable…

In this paper, we discuss the history of the concept of function and emphasize in particular how problems in physics have led to essential changes in its definition and application in mathematical practices. Euler defined a function as an analytic expression, whereas Dirichlet defined it as a variable that depends in an arbitrary manner on another…

We investigated whether three student-centred strategies influenced retention of science vocabulary words among 7th grade students. Two of the strategies (drawing pictures and talking about the definition of the terms) were developed to involve the students in more constructive and interactive exercises when compared to the technique that was in…

The act of swinging an object such as a hammer or a tennis racket involves the application of forces and torques in a manner that is intuitively obvious to the person performing the task, but is probably much less obvious to the average physics student. This article describes the basic mechanics of the problem.

This study examines the effects of an extended authentic research experience on students' understanding of the nature of science (NOS) and self-efficacy toward science. The curriculum of an introductory physical geology lab was transformed to include a six-week, student-driven research project focused on local groundwater and surface water issues.…

In this article I examine three examples of philosophical theories of scientific representation with the aim of assessing which of these is a good candidate for a philosophical theory of scientific representation in science learning. The three candidate theories are Giere's intentional approach, Suárez's inferential approach and Lynch and…

Students form a more exact idea of the action of optical mirrors if they can observe the wave field being formed during reflection. For this purpose it is possible to organize model experiments with flexural waves propagating in thin elastic plates. The direct and round edges of the plates are used as models of plane, convex and concave mirrors.…

Physics students encountering electric circuits for the first time often ask why adding more resistors to a circuit sometimes increases and sometimes decreases the resulting total resistance. It appears that these students have an inadequate understanding of current flow and resistance. Students who do not adopt a model of current, voltage, and…

If we drop a magnet through a coil, an emf is induced in the coil according to Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction. Here, such an experiment is done using expEYES kit. The plot of emf versus time has a specific shape with two peaks. A theoretical analysis of this graph is discussed here for both short and long cylindrical magnets.…

It is a known fact that it takes a greater effort to run on an exercise treadmill when it is inclined with positive slope than when it is in a horizontal position. The reason seems simple: walking on an inclined treadmill is somehow equivalent to walking up a hill with the same inclination; when we walk up a hill, our own weight does negative work…

Almost everyone "knows" that steam is visible. After all, one can see the cloud of white issuing from the spout of a boiling tea kettle. In reality, steam is the gaseous phase of water and is invisible. What you see is light scattered from the tiny droplets of water that are the result of the condensation of the steam as its temperature…

Roussel De Carvalho uses the notion of superdiversity to draw attention to some of the pedagogical implications of teaching science in multicultural schools in cosmopolitan cities such as London. De Carvalho makes the case that if superdiverse classrooms exist then Science Initial Teacher Education has a role to play in helping future science…

The aim of this study is to investigate the views of pre-service science teachers on Science-Technology-Society (STS). In the research, a descriptive research method was used and data were collected using the Views on Science-Technology-Society (VOSTS) Questionnaire. In general, the results of this study revealed that pre-service science teachers…

This article presents a study aiming at assessing the efficacy of reading newspaper articles with scientific content in order to incorporate nature of science (NOS) aspects in initial primary teacher education. To this aim, a short teaching intervention based on newspaper articles was planned and performed under regular class conditions. First,…