Cosmology education has become an integral part of modern physics courses. Directed by National Curricula, major UK examination boards have developed syllabi that contain explicit statements about the model of the Big Bang and the strong observational evidence that supports it. This work examines the similarities and differences in these…

Teaching university physics through the internet is not new, but a new course providing the same service for secondary school students is the first of its kind in Hong Kong. Taking advantage of the fast and affordable broadband internet in the region, some university courses have been converted to a cyber curriculum suitable for secondary school…

There is still nothing to beat the excitement and fulfilment that you can get from observing celestial bodies on a clear dark night, in a remote location away from the seemingly ever increasing light pollution from cities. However, it is also the specific requirements for good observing that can sometimes prevent teachers from offering this…

Kinetic models of a gas can be hard for students to understand. Typical tools do not display events at the microscopic level, yet computer simulations of the molecules lack a hands-on aspect. Here a new tool is described that combines the squeezing of a syringe with a computer simulation, and it is shown that this has worked well in class for both…

Today computer music is the dominant form of reproduced music and computers are widely available in the home and in science laboratories. The advent of new technology prompts us to rethink not only how we teach, but also what we teach. In this article I present a possible new approach to the teaching of sound based around these new technologies.…

This article describes how putting physics words to well known songs can provide a valuable, innovative and fun approach for presenting, promoting and learning physics.

The first phase of an evaluation of the new AS/A-level course "Advancing Physics," sponsored by the Institute of Physics, is now complete. It shows that the course has achieved very high satisfaction ratings from teachers of the course, and that a majority of these teachers see it as achieving its main aims. The first phase of the evaluation was…

Many people believe that NASA could have faked the evidence showing that man landed on the Moon in 1969. Some opinion polls suggest that as many as 10-25% of the United States population also agree that there is the possibility that this could have happened. Numerous magazines, journals, websites and TV programmes now present the facts as…

We present a simple activity in which students measure the resolving power of their eyes. The approach can be used at various levels of sophistication with students having a wide variety of skills and scientific training. We discuss our experiences using this activity with a class of non-science majors as well as with a group of pre-engineering…

This article looks generally at spreadsheet modelling of feedback situations. It has several benefits as a teaching tool. Additionally, a consideration of the limitations of calculating at many discrete points can lead, at A-level, to an appreciation of the need for the calculus. Feedback situations can be used to introduce the idea of…

It is shown that highly elliptical orbits, such as those of comets, can be explained well in terms of energy rather than forces. The principle of conservation of energy allows a comet's velocity to be calculated at aphelion and perihelion. An example asks students to calculate whether they can run fast enough to escape from a small asteroid.…

For pupils of both sexes and all ages from about six upwards, the subject of Astronomy holds many fascinations--the rapid changes in knowledge, the large resource of available IT packages and above all the beautiful pictures from Hubble and the large Earth-based telescopes. This article, however, stresses the excitement and importance of naked-eye…

This paper describes the use of interactive, Physlet[R]-based curricular material designed to help students learn concepts of thermodynamics with a particular focus on the use of kinetic theory models. These exercises help students visualize ideal gas particle dynamics and engine cycles, make concrete connections between mechanics and…

This article reports on an experimental scheme in adult education designed for people with curiosity about, but limited formal education in, science. It is offered within a department of humanities and focuses on "ideas" drawn from science, rather than on facts, phenomena or formulae. It involves different approaches to teaching, learning and the…

The research reported here focuses on links between teachers' comprehension of the underlying physics and their development of educational strategies for classroom work during in-service training. It deals with the teaching of hydrostatics, a topic considered particularly interesting by teachers. Starting from the analysis of simple experiments…