As part of a first-year college Introductory Physics course, I have students construct an Excel[R]: spreadsheet based on the differential equation for pendulum motion (we take a pendulum having a light bar rather than a string, so it can go "over the top"). In extensive discussions with the students, I find that forcing them to make the…

The Pavia University History Museum, which houses historic items mainly connected to the physics and medicine fields, has focused in the past years on new ways to involve its public and to attract new audiences. Among different approaches, digital technologies have proven important to both external and internal communication. Lately, an Augmented…

The purpose of this work is to reconsider and critically discuss the conceptual foundations of modern biology and bio-sciences in general, and provide an epistemological guideline to help framing the teaching of these disciplines and enhancing the quality of their presentation in High School, Master and Ph.D. courses. After discussing the…

The association between the observable physical world and the mathematical models used in theoretical physics to describe this world is examined. Such models will frequently exhibit solutions that are "unexpected," in the sense that they describe physical situations which are different from that which the physicist may initially have had in mind…

The literature on the pedagogical aspects of the photoelectric effect as used in the undergraduate student laboratory shows that little research has been done in this area. Our current study is an analysis of the instructions in 38, electronically published laboratory manuals for the photoelectric effect. The analyses were based on history and…

This paper is an analysis of inserting history and philosophy of science (HPS) in a physics undergraduate program at a Brazilian university. It is an examination of the approaches and methodologies adopted by professors of a History and Epistemology course. The course aims to have an explicit approach to HPS. The results suggest a concern of the…

In scientific teaching, especially in physics and chemistry, some historical aspects have been introduced at the secondary level in France, since 1993. Particularly, in 2007, the syllabuses of 11'-15' years old level ("college") propose precise activities in history of science and technology. Detailed guidance has been distributed in…

This paper presents a rationale for utilizing HPS to teach physics and the NoS developed in the course of a project funded by the European Union. A core feature of this approach is formed by the development of historical case studies for the use in lessons. Furthermore, the learners' perspectives are explicitly taken into account. Teaching methods…

While it is a commonplace in the historiography of electricity that itinerant lecturers and instrument makers were "somehow" part of the "electrical flare" of the 18th century, very little is actually known about them, about their background, their careers and their self-understanding. Yet, research focusing on these…

Hermeneutics is useful in science and science education by emphasizing the process of understanding. The purpose of this study was to construct a workshop based upon hermeneutical principles and to interpret students' learning in the workshop through a hermeneutical perspective. When considering the history of Newtonian mechanics, it could be…