A combination of theoretical perspectives is used to create a rich description of student reasoning when facing a highly-geometric electricity and magnetism problem in an upper-division active-engagement physics classroom at Oregon State University. Geometric reasoning as students encounter problem situations ranging from familiar to novel is…

In special relativity, the transformation between inertial frames for an electromagnetic plane wave is usually derived for the time-harmonic case (the field is a sinusoid of infinite duration), even though all practical waves are of finite duration and may not even contain a dominant sinusoid. This paper presents an alternative derivation in which…

Ask a typical high school student to draw a picture of how a bar magnet works and most of the drawings produced will show a "+" and "-" sign at the two ends. Some students will write "N" and "S." If you then ask some follow-up questions, they will often resort to talking about "charges" being responsible for the magnetism. For several years, I…

This National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) First Look report introduces new data for the universe of public elementary and secondary schools and agencies in the United States in school year (SY) 2012-13. Specifically, this report includes statistics that describe: (1) the numbers and types of public elementary and secondary schools and…

This article reports the effects of attending an elementary full-service community school (FSCS) on a variety of student academic outcomes in high school. The focal FSCS, Key Elementary, serves students in grades K-5 in a diverse southeastern New York State (NYS) school district. The academic performance of students, born between 1991 and 1996,…

In the course of inquiry activities similar to those of real scientists, learners are supposed to develop knowledge both on the level of observable phenomena and on the level of explanatory theories. However, some theories involve theoretical entities (e.g., "Weiss domains") that cannot be observed directly and therefore may be hard to…

Any assessment activity can help student learning if it provides information that both teachers and students can use as feedback in assessing themselves. However, such assessment only becomes "formative" assessment when teachers actually use the feedback to adapt their teaching to meet the learning needs of students. This column provides…

Purpose in life is beneficial for adolescents and their communities. However, less is known about supports for purpose development during adolescence, particularly in the school setting. The study described here drew from theories about teacher beliefs and knowledge, and a multidimensional definition of purpose in life, in order to learn from…

After the discovery that superconducting magnets could levitate diamagnetic objects, researchers became interested in measuring the repulsion of diamagnetic fluids in strong magnetic fields, which was given the name "The Moses Effect." Both for the levitation experiments and the quantitative studies on liquids, the large magnetic fields necessary…

The "LCR" circuit is an important topic in the course of electricity and magnetism. Papers in this field consider mainly the forced oscillations and resonance. Our aim is to show how to demonstrate the free and self-excited oscillations in an "LCR" circuit. (Contains 4 figures.)

Fleming's right-hand rule and the right-flat-hand rule are generally applied for determining the direction of flow of induced emf/current in straight conductors. The right-hand-fingers rule is applied for coils only. The right-hand-thumb rule can be applied for either straight conductors or coils. Different rules have to be applied for different…

Despite the potential of augmented reality (AR) in enabling students to construct new understanding, little is known about how the processes and interactions with the multimedia lead to increased learning. This study seeks to explore the affordances of an AR tool on learning that is focused on the science concept of magnets and magnetic fields.…

Purpose: The purpose of this research article is to illustrate the value of including students' voices in educational leadership and research practices, to more fully understand what students are actually experiencing in transformative learning spaces, and to determine what we might learn from them in terms of how to improve both leadership…

The landscape of school choice options in public education has been expanding faster than ever over the past decade, nationwide and especially in Florida. With this expansion has come an unprecedented array of new decisions that parents and guardians must learn to navigate as they seek the best school for their children. Options available to…

We study the nonlinear oscillations of a forced and weakly dissipative spring-magnet system moving in the magnetic fields of two fixed coaxial, hollow induction coils. As the first coil is excited with a dc current, both a linear and a cubic magnet-position dependent force appear on the magnet-spring system. The second coil, located below the…