General relativity (GR) represents the most recent theory of gravity, on which all modern astrophysics is based, including some of the most astonishing results of physics research. Nevertheless, its study is limited to university courses, while being ignored at high-school level. To introduce GR in high school, one of the approaches that can be…

Several studies have showed the subsistence, even in students enrolled in scientific degree courses, of spontaneous ideas regarding the motion of bodies that conflict with Newton's laws. One of the causes is related to the intuitive preconceptions that students have about the role of friction as a force. In fact, in real world novices do not…

This work documents the collaboration between the Physics department of the University of Calabria and some schools of the region in a project devoted to recovering disused instrumentation in school laboratories. The project has been conceived as a workplace experience for the students, i.e. a learning experience in a real work place. In Italy,…

In this paper we describe the results of some experiments about using surprising physics demonstrations, presented as magical phenomena followed by scientific explanations, for introducing physics topics in several teaching contexts. All the demonstrations have been designed to be implemented with easy to get and cheap materials, so that students…

There is a growing interest in engaging students and the general public about the meaning and objectives of doing science. When it is possible students can learn by actively engaging in the practices of science, conducting investigations, sharing ideas with their peers, teachers and scientists, learning to work with measuring apparatuses, to…

In this article we describe an experimental learning path about electromagnetic induction which uses an Atwood machine where one of the two hanging bodies is a cylindrical magnet falling through a plexiglass guide, surrounded either by a coil or by a copper pipe. The first configuration (magnet falling across a coil) allows students to…

We report a laboratory activity, carried out along with high- and secondary-school students, that can be done to increase the interest of the young in scientific studies. Groups of selected students "adopted" experiments at physics research laboratories, under the guidance of university researchers. Subsequently, the students…

We report on an experiment performed with a home-made flat-plate solar collector, carried out together with high-school students. To explain the experimental results, we propose a model that describes the heating process of the solar collector. The model accounts quantitatively for the experimental data. We suggest that solar-energy topics should…

In this article I describe an experiment involving the Leidenfrost phenomenon, which is the long lifetime of a water drop when it is deposited on a metal that is much hotter than the boiling point of water. The experiment was carried out with high-school students. The Leidenfrost point is measured and the heat laws are used to estimate the…

The change from the state of supercooling to the solid state of ice is called superfreezing. This process is not uncommon and takes place in domestic freezers. It is also easy to reproduce in the laboratory. (Contains 6 figures.)

In this article we show how to verify that in a fluid surface or film the value of the surface tension (i.e. the free energy per unit area) does not depend on the area of the film itself. The experimental evidence discussed can be obtained extremely simply yet with great accuracy. This experiment is important in that it leads to a deeper…

The research reported here focuses on links between teachers' comprehension of the underlying physics and their development of educational strategies for classroom work during in-service training. It deals with the teaching of hydrostatics, a topic considered particularly interesting by teachers. Starting from the analysis of simple experiments…