Screwdriver Magnets, Ursula Franklin, and Oceans of Truth
A new video by Derek Mueller and Steve Mould looks at a fascinating phenomenon involving a screwdriver and a magnet. It's a great head-scratcher, with a low floor and a high ceiling for student responses.
The April issue of the Canadian Journal of Physics honours Ursula Franklin, a prolific and influential German-Canadian physicist who passed away in 2016. The Festschrift articles are interesting and, while the research papers are currently paywalled, this blog post by Emily Marshman gives a readable discussion of some of the work on gender differences.
Eichenlaub and Redish have a preprint on the arXiv of a chapter in a forthcoming GIREP book. It's a close and thoughtful look at problem-solving, informed by the model of epistemic games. There is some reference to interviews with students, but the overall it is an insightful meditation on how students think when they work on physics problems.
There's a perennial question when designing curricula: how do I choose topics and contexts that will engage students? A PR:PER paper by Geller, Turpen, and Crouch looks at this question in the context of a first-year physics course for the life sciences, and find two key concerns: First, we should seek "coherence" with other courses; this is sometimes called horizontal alignment. Second, we should use contexts that are personally meaningful for students and their career trajectories.
If you're in the market for a 9th-grade physics textbook that does a good job with the history, the free text Oceans of Truth by Nasif Iskander is pretty impressive.
Seen on the web:
Drew Berry and Michael Kuiper shared this molecular model of water crystallizing.
Maryam Zaringhalam wrote a brilliant piece about the work of underrepresented people in science.
Frank Noschese is going to receive Zitzewitz Award from the AAPT for excellence in K-12 teaching.
The April issue of the Canadian Journal of Physics honours Ursula Franklin, a prolific and influential German-Canadian physicist who passed away in 2016. The Festschrift articles are interesting and, while the research papers are currently paywalled, this blog post by Emily Marshman gives a readable discussion of some of the work on gender differences.
Eichenlaub and Redish have a preprint on the arXiv of a chapter in a forthcoming GIREP book. It's a close and thoughtful look at problem-solving, informed by the model of epistemic games. There is some reference to interviews with students, but the overall it is an insightful meditation on how students think when they work on physics problems.
There's a perennial question when designing curricula: how do I choose topics and contexts that will engage students? A PR:PER paper by Geller, Turpen, and Crouch looks at this question in the context of a first-year physics course for the life sciences, and find two key concerns: First, we should seek "coherence" with other courses; this is sometimes called horizontal alignment. Second, we should use contexts that are personally meaningful for students and their career trajectories.
If you're in the market for a 9th-grade physics textbook that does a good job with the history, the free text Oceans of Truth by Nasif Iskander is pretty impressive.
Seen on the web:
Drew Berry and Michael Kuiper shared this molecular model of water crystallizing.
Maryam Zaringhalam wrote a brilliant piece about the work of underrepresented people in science.
Frank Noschese is going to receive Zitzewitz Award from the AAPT for excellence in K-12 teaching.