We present the theoretical argument that the use of mathematics in physics can be productively conceptualized as using a language and that learning to make sense of physics equations and appropriating them into novel scientific inquiry can be understood as a process of learning to read fluently with a high level of reading comprehension and to…

School visits to research laboratories or facilities represent a unique way to bring students closer to science and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics careers. However, such visits can be very expensive for students and teachers, in terms of both time and money. In this paper, we present a possible alternative to on-site visits…

Background: The paper discusses how the design of summative assessments of practical science can be enhanced through the use of robust theoretical models that capture the diversity of scientific methods. The developments in assessment policy in England and the role of practical science in teaching and learning of science are reviewed. Purpose: The…

The social reaction to the recent detection of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves provided evidence that public interest in modern physics has reached a high point. Although these modern physics topics are being introduced into the upper secondary physics curricula in a growing number of countries, their potential for teaching various aspects…

Secondary school students often only use the rules for doing scientific inquiry when prompted, as if they fail to see the point of doing so. This qualitative design study explores conditions to address this problem in school science inquiry. Dutch students (N = 22, aged 14-15) repeatedly consider the quality of their work: in a conventional,…

This work shows the production steps of two optical fibre sensing setups which were specially designed for the activities of the 2018 Photonics Lab Open Day realized at the Federal University of Technology-Paraná in Brazil as a celebration of the first International Day of Light (16 May). The systems are based on the sensing properties of fibre…

This article reports on the results of an exploratory phenomenological study of six Nebraska high school physics teachers and their perceived impact of participating in a collaborative scientific research program that provided training in experimental procedures and advanced, extracurricular physics topics, all building on fundamental high school…

Since 2017 the Italian Space Agency (ASI) participates to so-called 'Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro' (i.e. 'school-work synergy') outreach projects promoted by the Italian government, and the ASI Space Science Data Center (SSDC) actively contributes to them, with the primary aim of bringing students closer to space-related activities before choosing…

In this paper, we investigate some of the ways in which students, when given the opportunity and an appropriate learning environment, spontaneously engage in collaborative inquiry. We studied small groups of high school students interacting around and with an interactive whiteboard equipped with Algodoo software, as they investigated orbital…

Students who do not progress to more advanced science disciplines in college generally do not realize that seemingly simple physical systems are--when studied in detail--more complex than one might imagine. This article presents one such phenomenon--the hydraulic jump--as a way to help students see the complexity behind the seemingly simple, and…

This paper presents results from the design and testing of an educational version of Quantum Moves, a Scientific Discovery Game that allows players to help solve authentic scientific challenges in the effort to develop a quantum computer. The primary aim of developing a game-based platform for student-research collaboration is to investigate if…

Physics First is offered to ninth graders at high schools in Aurora, CO. A unique new asset of this school system is an embedded research lab called the "Innovation Hyperlab." The goal of the lab is to connect secondary school teaching to ongoing university scientific research, supporting the school district's aim to create opportunities to…

Ask any physicist what the preeminent journal in the field is, and I think the almost unanimous answer will be "Physical Review Letters" ("PRL"). This weekly journal of the American Physical Society publishes high-impact research from all the major subdisciplines of physics. This journal is not the one you would think is the first place a high…

Students and the general public are often told that the chronology of ancient events is known with high confidence, but the methods used to determine how long ago an event occurred are usually not described or even mentioned. This gives the impression that the methods are either not important or that only scientists can understand them.…

This article presents an approach to integrate contemporary physics into high-school teaching. We present a simple way to understand mass spectroscopy using basic physics concepts, so that high-school students may have contact with recent topics of modern research. The main features of a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer using secondary…