In basic physics, often in their first year of study of the subject, students meet the concept of an image, for example when using pinhole cameras and finding the position of an image in a mirror. They are also familiar with the term in photography and design, through software which allows image manipulation, even "in-camera" on most…

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational institutions to adjust their learning process to distance education or online learning. This paper explains how to teach optics during the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing project-based learning that can be supervised online. Students are instructed to design, characterize, and optimize droplet lenses…

A disco ball is a spherical object covered with small plane mirrors. When light reflects on these mirrors, it is scattered in many directions, producing a novel effect. The mirror globe is usually set to rotate, creating a profusion of moving spots (Fig. 1). In this article, we present a geometrical description of the movement of these spots and…

We conducted a quasiexperimental study in order to investigate the effect of a teaching concept on quantum physics based on coincidence and correlation experiments with heralded photons on preuniversity students' conceptions of quantum physics (experimental group, N = 150). We compare the results with the traditional curriculum's effect (control…

There is a growing interest in the value of teachers guiding students to generate their own representations to support conceptual learning in science and across complementary subjects such as mathematics. However, this approach to an interdisciplinary focus poses challenges for programme design and learning assessment. In this paper, we report on…

Excel spreadsheets are used as an excellent tool in physics laboratory experiments related to wave optics. This paper presents a simple way to simulate diffraction of waves through a slit using Excel spreadsheets without any tedious programming. These simulations are used to visualize the effect of variation of different parameters such as number…

In the current day and age, innovation is the fodder that keeps companies and institutions running, and universities play an important role. During the crisis and in the post-crisis period, financial support for research and development have undergone significant changes especially at universities. The aim of this research is to conduct a patent…

Optics is a core field in the curricula of secondary physics education. In this study, we present the development and validation of a test instrument in the field of optics, the ray optics in converging lenses concept inventory (ROC-CI). It was developed for and validated with middle school students, but can also be adapted for the use in higher…

This paper is inspired from a scene in the movie "Memento" (2000), where the eyeglass prescription for a myopic eye can be estimated since the virtual image of a distant wall seen through the lens and a nearby actor outside the view of the lens are located at the same distance. The estimate illustrates that there are times when the power…

Contribution: Prior studies indicate that students experimenting with characterization of optical planar waveguides use expensive ready-made prism couplers without clear understanding about construction of the entire optical measurement system. This paper presents a cost-effective modified bright-mode prism coupler that helps students learn…

In the early nineteenth century, the ideas of reform pedagogues gave rise to a didactic turn towards the visual that criticised an exclusive textual mediation of knowledge through books and lectures. To raise educational effectualness, teachers came under increasing pressure to incorporate high-profile media technologies into their lessons. Yet,…

The infrared camera is a useful tool in physics education to 'see' in the infrared. In this paper, we describe four simple experiments that focus on phenomena related to heat transfer and optics that are encountered at undergraduate physics level using an infrared camera, and discuss the strengths and limitations of this tool for such purposes.

In this article construction of a simple and inexpensive test card which can be used to demonstrate the polarisation ability of sunglasses is described. The card was fabricated simply by using a piece of polariser sheet with one to three layers of cellophane tape fixed on it.

Rodents are exquisitely sensitive to light and optogenetic behavioral experiments routinely introduce light-delivery materials into experimental situations, which raises the possibility that light could leak and influence behavioral performance. We examined whether rats respond to a faint diffusion of light, termed caplight, which emanated through…

The purpose of this research was to explore South African Grade 11 learners' conceptual understanding of "image formation by lenses". The participants for this study were 70 Grade 11 learners from a selected senior secondary school in Mthatha, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The qualitative approach employed in the study made use of…