Visual representation in school textbooks plays an important role for physics teaching and learning. The integration of graphics with text has drawn attention of physics educators in recent years due to the close relationship between graphics and relevant text. The purpose of this study is to examine visual representation of optical content in…

For nearly two decades, augmented reality (AR) has found diverse applications in education, particularly in science education, where its efficacy has been supported by relevant theories and many empirical studies. However, previous studies have revealed the following research deficit: While AR technology appears to influence learning-related…

Students are often introduced to optics in their middle school years. The initial topics that are introduced through their lessons are laws of reflection and refraction of light. In the law of reflection, students do not often question why the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection and why a light ray should follow this specific…

Nowadays more than two billion people own smartphones, without necessarily realizing they have a mobile physics lab that can be used to study acoustics, mechanics, astronomy, optics, fluids mechanics, or even serves as an oscilloscope. All smartphones have at least one camera, which is probably the most well-known and used sensor of this device.…

One of the most consequential inventions of modern times is the telescope. Almost immediately upon turning it to the skies, Galileo made discoveries that altered our perceptions of our place in the cosmos forever: features on the Moon, the rotation of the Sun, the composition of the Milky Way, the phases of Venus, and the four large moons of…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] This manuscript presents a case study of an introductory physics student who, during the remote learning conditions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, found inspiration within a new, open-inquiry, project-based, laboratory curriculum…

Undergraduate physics laboratory exercises are very important in shaping students' attitude to science, especially for future teachers. Recently, it is necessary to look for ways to easily create large quantities of experimental sets, not only for institutional use, but also for sets that can be produced in large quantities and distributed for use…

By building a schlieren optical system, the visualization of a 40 KHz sound wave is realized. By using the schlieren system, the demonstration of acoustic reflection, interference and diffraction can be easily realized. At the same time, the visual acoustic field provides another simple way for the measurement of sound velocity. In this paper, the…

Problem-solving is an essential part of teaching, learning, and assessment of physics and mathematics. The continuing educational reforms have a deep impact on everyday teaching as well as working with talented students. In the Macedonian educational system, the curricula do not explicitly point out the connection between mathematics and physics,…

When driving on a sunny day, one can sometimes observe a small solar spectrum in the rearview mirror of a vehicle. The formation of this "rainbow" results from the prism-like structure of the rearview mirror. Our investigation of this phenomenon reveals that the resulting spectrum is formed in a manner similar to the way a rainbow is…

The current pandemic era demands distance learning, including physics experiments on the topic of optics. One of the optical phenomena that needs to be explained in optic courses is fluorescence. This study offers a simple home experiment regarding the application of fluorescence, namely to identify the purity of olive oil using simple…

We outline the basic theory behind white light interferometry and the workings of a typical light interferometer microscope. We study WLI images obtained for rough and smooth chrome steel spheres to illustrate the principle that curved rough surfaces can be imaged with such a device as long as the surface roughness is kept within certain limits.

In many introductory physics classes, diffraction of light is introduced first, then more advanced diffraction topics such as x-ray diffraction, Bragg's law, and crystallography are covered. Since using x-rays raises safety concerns and atomic spacing in a crystal is not easy to change, microwaves with macroscopic crystals have been used to study…

In this study, we used a research tool for measuring students' conceptual understanding in optics, the Geometrical Optics Conceptual Understanding Test-2 (GOCUT-2), to evaluate the impact of supplementing classroom instruction with laboratory experiments, PhET simulations, or YouTube videos. This study involved students from public, urban…

A simple measurement of the refractive index of a liquid has been performed using a spherical lens. This lens is a spherical shape flask containing the liquid under study. Parallel pointer laser beams are directed to the lens to obtain the back focal length of the lens. The focal point is determined visually or using the Tracker software to…