When students are forming their ideas of what will eventually become the concept of force, the images of arrows in our standard diagrams carry with them unconscious attributes of direction of movement and so on. Describes how the use of a 'symbolic representation of interactions' with double-headed arrows avoids these unwanted messages being…

The play Copenhagen has attracted the attention of a large audience in several countries. The hypothetical discussion between two of the giants in physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, has inspired us to start a theoretical and experimental exploration of quantum physics. This theme has been used in Stockholm Science Laboratory for audiences…

A National Curriculum for postgraduate science teacher training courses in England and Wales was first introduced in September 1999. Reviews the new curriculum and associated assessment procedures and raises points for discussion. Particular attention is paid to the implications for prospective high school physics teachers. (Author/MM)

Motion in a circle troubled Newton and his contemporaries and troubles students today. Presents a clear presentation of certain aspects, particularly centripetal acceleration and centrifugal force. (Author/MM)

Whole vectors are not just for drawings. Easy, straightforward, and surprisingly versatile, whole vectors are perfect for calculations. (Author/MM)

Shows how some of the simple ideas in complexity can be investigated using a spreadsheet and a macro written in Visual Basic. Shows how the sandpile model of Bak, Chao, and Wiesenfeld can be simulated and animated. The model produces results that cannot easily be predicted from its properties. (Author/MM)

An atlatl is a thrower for propelling a flexible dart through the air. Describes a class investigation for making an atlatl using a piece of dowel. (Author/MM)

We report a detailed study of the implementation of "Tutorials in Introductory Physics" at a large-scale research institution. Based on two successive semesters of evaluation, we observe students' improved conceptual mastery (force and motion concept evaluation median normalized gain 0.77, N=336 ), albeit with some student discontent. We replicate…

We investigated the common difficulties that students have with concepts related to rotational and rolling motion covered in the introductory physics courses. We compared the performance of calculus- and algebra-based introductory physics students with physics juniors who had learned rotational and rolling motion concepts in an intermediate level…

This paper examines the effects of substituting a computer simulation for real laboratory equipment in the second semester of a large-scale introductory physics course. The direct current circuit laboratory was modified to compare the effects of using computer simulations with the effects of using real light bulbs, meters, and wires. Two groups of…

Student success in solving physics problems is related to the representational format of the problem. We study student representational competence in two large-lecture algebra-based introductory university physics courses with approximately 600 participants total. We examined student performance on homework problems given in four different…

Physics education research increasingly makes use of video data for analysis of student learning and teaching practice. Collection of these data is conceptually simple but execution is often fraught with costly and time-consuming complications. This pragmatic paper discusses the development of systems to record and permanently archive audio and…

Describes a microcomputer-based laboratory experiment designed for high school students that very accurately analyzes Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction, addressing each variable separately while the others are kept constant. (Author/CCM)

Presents a method for measuring the speed of light using a laser pointer with adjustable focus as the signal carrier, a signal generator to modulate the light beam, and a student oscilloscope to detect the phase shift. (Author/CCM)

Finds that students encountering thermal physics at the introductory level often have difficulty distinguishing between heat and temperature. Argues that challenging misconceptions through experiment and discussion can quickly enable students to develop an understanding of thermal physics. (Author/CCM)