Presents a long-term energy policy, to ensure a stable world civilization in the next century, that requires the developed nations to lower their energy consumption to the present world average. (GA)

Reviews the occupation of professional meteorologist and discusses possible routes in this career field. (SL)

An elementary analysis of a common textbook airplane problem is given, and then, as an illustrative example, the possibilities of this mechanism for animal navigation are briefly considered. (Author/MA)

Described is the Technician Education Council (TEC) format, and philosophy of physics courses for technicians in industry education. (DS)

Describes experiments designed to explore the distribution of potential difference between two uncharged capacitors when they are suddenly connected to a source of constant voltage. Enables students to explore the evolution of a system in which initial voltage distribution depends on capacitor values, and the final voltage distribution depends on…

Describes tried and tested methods for introducing vectors and addressing the topics of centripetal acceleration and vector and scalar products to secondary physics students. (Author/WRM)

Reports on an innovation in Swedish teacher training that is attracting students taking courses on interdisciplinary thematic topics. Notes that unqualified teachers are teaching in the science disciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology. Provides three years worth of statistics on the number of applicants and admitted students in teacher…

Students need to do more than just look at web pages to learn from the Internet, they also need to interact and communicate with others. Describes ways to use resources from the internet in physics teaching. (Author/MM)

Shows how some of the simple ideas in complexity can be investigated using a spreadsheet and a macro written in Visual Basic. Shows how the sandpile model of Bak, Chao, and Wiesenfeld can be simulated and animated. The model produces results that cannot easily be predicted from its properties. (Author/MM)

Summarizes the benefits and dangers of using multimedia CD-ROMs in physics teaching. (Author/CCM)

Advocates the need for pupils to practice significant aspects of scientific work such as the making of epistemic (related to the nature and construction of knowledge) and methodological decisions. This requires that they work on problems and activities presented in a more open way than usual. Describes a case study. (Contains 11 references.)…

In 2000, the New South Wales Board of Studies introduced new syllabi for Junior Science (years 7-10) and Senior Science subjects (years 11 and 12), i.e. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Earth and Environmental Science (Geology). The structure of these courses is similar: it is based on a contextual perspective and is underpinned by a number of…

Frictional force is a source of misconceptions among students, as teachers know from daily experience. This is confirmed by many studies carried out by investigators from all over the world. Surprisingly (or perhaps not), we have found some of these misconceptions among physics school teachers and senior students of physics education courses…

There are many spontaneous conceptions related to the principle of action and reaction for two bodies in static contact. A study of a broad sample of students showed Newton's third law to be a great unknown for most of them. The conceptions were found to be consistent, forming authentic minitheories (implicit theories) with general laws governing…

Experiences with a teaching machine for self-paced individual teaching in physics are discussed and evaluated. The teaching system is described, the problems of choosing topics and making programs are examined, and student evaluation of the course is reported. (DT)