During the last decade the development of modern digital media such as smartphones and tablet computers has enabled new experimental possibilities in STEM education. Besides these now nearly ubiquitous devices, the fields of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) also made huge progress and reached education. In this paper we introduce an…

The Phantom Bouquet is a venerable lecture demonstration that does a fine job of showing how a concave spherical mirror can form a real, inverted image. In the original demonstration, a brightly illuminated artificial rose is hung by its stem in front of a concave spherical mirror. The distance from the reflecting surface to the rose is somewhat…

The hydrogen spectrum is one of the most commonly demonstrated and most commonly studied. After the visible spectral lines (Balmer series) are explained by the Rydberg's formula, it becomes immediately apparent that there will also be similar infrared and ultraviolet series. As you may have taught your students, these are called the Paschen and…

The location of the center of mass of a beam can be calculated using the values of the reaction forces at its ends. The success of an apparently erroneous solution leads the authors to seek and find an explanation for why this solution works. We illustrate the procedure with an asymmetric beam.

In the field of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), technologies have made huge progress during the last years and also reached the field of education. The virtuality continuum, ranging from pure virtuality on one side to the real world on the other, has been successfully covered by the use of immersive technologies like head-mounted…

I report an innovation that provides a compelling demonstration of rocket propulsion, appropriate for students of physics and other physical sciences. An electrical spark is initiated from a distance to cause the deflagration of a combustible vapor mixed with air in a lightweight plastic bottle that is consequently propelled as a rocket by the…

While teaching his first-ever introductory college astronomy course, I heard a graduate student make the comment that compared to other areas of astronomy, studying the solar system is just "stamp collecting." Coverage of the solar system in an introductory college astronomy course certainly "could" consist mostly of showing…

This paper describes a conservation of momentum experiment using just smartphones and two beach balls, thus making the experimental study of this movement available to any classroom. For a more thorough analysis of the data, a computer can also be used. Experiments making use of smartphone sensors have been described before, contributing to an…

We commonly ask students to compare the results of their experimental measurements with the predictions of a simple physical model that is well understood. However, in practice, physicists must compare their experimental measurements with the predictions of several models, none of which may work well over the entire range of measurements. The…

While it has been demonstrated how air resistance could be analyzed by using mobile devices, this paper demonstrates a method of how to determine the drag resistance coefficient "c" of a commercial automobile by using the acceleration sensor of a smartphone or tablet. In an academic context, the drag resistance is often mentioned, but…

When students first encounter energy bands in semiconductors, and how the properties of simple semiconductor devices such as the "p-n" junction diode depend on them, the concept can be a bit difficult to grasp. As part of an undergraduate physics course for non-STEM majors that includes semiconductors and simple devices based on the…

In astronomy, methods such as direct imaging or interferometry-based techniques (Michelson stellar interferometry for example) are used for observations. A particular advantage of interferometry is that it permits greater spatial resolution compared to direct imaging with a single telescope, which is limited by diffraction owing to the aperture of…

Course revision is often challenging, and instructional partnerships between Learning Assistants (LAs; peer mentors) and course instructors can be leveraged to create novel learning spaces, through an ongoing, iterative revision process coupled with an open sharing of ideas between the LA and instructor. We describe the specifics of an…

In this paper, I (SH) will apply a counter-storytelling method to highlight a perspective that is not often present in the physics culture. The counter-storytelling (or counter-narrative) method gives voice to people from traditionally marginalized groups to share their untold experiences. Counter-storytelling, as the name implies, challenges…

Since 2015, Germany has officially registered over 1.3 million refugees, many fleeing the Syrian civil war during the most recent European migrant crisis. The majority reaction of 82 million German citizens and their government to the crisis led to the welcoming culture ("Willkommenskultur")--the development of multiple government,…